Millions meant for Indians mismanaged by Sedic
PUCHONG: Grants meant for the betterment of the Malaysian Indian community were mismanaged by the Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community Unit (Sedic) under the Najib administration between the year 2014 to 2018. This was revealed by the The Auditor General report 2018 Series 1.
A total of RM203.89 million between 2014 and 2018 were allocated to run development programmes to uplift the poor Indian community.
The report revealed no records or database to monitor the spending of the grants and it did not follow criteria in terms of selecting its non-governmental organisation recipients.
“There also appears to be a weakness in administration and conflict of interest in the management of Sedic involving its director-general, a minister and assistant minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
“This is because there is no clear SOP as a guideline for the programme’s implementation,” the report stated.
The discrepancies by SEDIC include 49 unqualified NGOS being recipients of RM18.91 million in 2017. In 2014, Sedic did not file allocations worth RM10.77 million for 23 programmes by 20 NGOs
A total of five NGOs and one skill training institute did not return extra funds worth RM2.86 million and some NGOs did not spend the funds according to scope.
The Auditor General’s Report also revealed that the then Health Minister, an assistant minister in the PMD and Sedic itself applied for RM38 million between 2016 and March 2018 as a one off contributions for NGOS and Indian places of worship.
A survey on participants of five programmes by Sedic indicated that participants were not even aware of the programme.
“All of the participants of those particular programmes said they never attended such a programme. Some others could not even be verified because no participants list was provided,” said the report.
“SEDIC’s management and monitoring of the NGOs and its review and implementation of the programmes has also been lacking, and there is opportunity for fraud,” the report stated.
Sedic was formed in 2014 under the Najib administration to provide grants for NGOs to conduct programmes for the benefit of the Indian community.
Under the Pakatan Harapan government it has been revamped as the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit but remains under the Prime Minister’s Department.
