KUALA LUMPUR: A poverty eradication project run by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry has been found to be a failure, said Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

Nur Jazlan said the 1Azam programme did not follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) prescribed for it and had violated procurement regulations when buying equipment for its participants.

He said some participants were not from the target group the programme was aimed at.

“Some of the participants in the programme could not be found either,” he said at the Parliament lobby yesterday after hearing the submission by the ministry.

The 1Azam programme is aimed at helping participants to become entrepreneurs.

Participants are equipped to set up small businesses and take up opportunities in the services sector and agriculture industry.

Nur Jazlan said the programme had also failed to conduct research on the needs of possible participants and the backgrounds of potential participants were not properly checked. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 25, 2015.