Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (April 5): The government's Sustainable Village Programme (SVP) can be more efficiently managed if it is overseen by only one agency instead of two, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said today.

The SVP, a programme under the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKLW), is aimed at raising the economic standards, boosting entrepreneurship activities, and creating new job opportunities for local communities.

The PAC said it is concerned over weaknesses in the way the programme is run, including with regards to abandoned projects, procurement of materials, and work results which do not follow specifications.

The parliamentary panel also expressed concern over the misuse of power by officials as well as the lack of monitoring and action by Malaysian Cooperative Societies Commission (SKM) towards cooperatives which do not fully comply with the Cooperative Act 1993.

The PAC said this in a statement today after a meeting with KKLW and SKM to address concerns raised in the Auditor-General 2016 Report Series 1 on the management of the project.

PAC recommended to the government to review the participation of KKLW and SKM in overseeing the programme, which resulted in "multiple weaknesses in contract management among cooperatives".

It would be more efficient if the SVP is monitored and managed by one agency only, it said.

The auditor-general report noted that 19 out of 84 projects under the SVP were found to have been abandoned.

The programme commenced in 2013 under the Government Transformation Programme 2.0.

As of 2016, 80 selected villages underwent the programme with an allocation of RM114.68 million channelled through the ministry's agencies, the report showed.

The PAC also recommended KKLW to rope in other government agencies with expertise in industries to provide advisory services in the planning and execution of cooperative-run projects.

"SKM must be stricter in enforcing the laws in the Cooperatives Act, especially on cooperatives that have obtained government allocations to implement projects," it added.

 

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