Wastages, corruption and status quo

You get that feel
And everybody knows
You're moving their minds
Moving their minds around

From Heart's Rockin Heaven Down 

A political rumour picked up this morning mentioned there will be an announcement by Dato Hishamuddin bin Tun Hussein Onn just days prior to the UMNO General Assembly.

It is supposed to be a project supposedly to benefit, directly or indirectly, the 140,000 voting UMNO branch delegates and turn his feared political misfortune around. It can't be train, it can't be anything mega, not politically sensitive taxi and hmmm... could it be buses?

Or abolish toll?

That should answer our friend in JB who thought we gave up on UMNO election. No, just sick to our stomach with what's happening.

Haven't simmered from yesterday's expose on the stealing of poor people's money. There is more action in exposing crooks than talking about UMNO's predictable election. 

Wastages list

Today's paper is reporting on the latest Auditor General report for 2012.

It reminded of Rocky's posting on the recent petrol hike. There was exchanges between a blogger and high official. Yes, we were that blogger.

If that high official (whose identity will remain anonymous for now) think it is difficult to list 100 wastages of government, here goes:

1. Dr Ong Kian Meng's issue on McKinsey & Co.'s RM20 million consultancy to prepare the Educational masterplan which Tun Dr Mahathir sarcastically said should be done by local and relevent expert. Read here.

2. Expose on the 1Azam yesterday here. Syed Akbar here had calculated, not the wastage but corruption, to be RM360 million.

3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. FGV's strange dealings relating to China oil palm deal, purchase of Pontian plantation, purchase of London hotel, takeover of Iris PLC, Papua New Guinea New Britain plantation and another one coming. Track all these in Bigdog's blog and Rocky Bru's here and here

8. 9. 10. and 11. Suspicious award of contracts by Putrajaya Holdings to WCT Holdings Berhad. Exposed here. Probably more than four contracts but keep it as four items.

12., 13. and 14. Tender of accrual accounting system, Ubiquitous system for Jabatan Kastam and MyEG.com e-government concession. All exposed by this blog here and here.

15. Education Ministry's RM5 billion Bestari project tender. [Read in Rocky Bru here] Heard some dubious duda whose janda berhias had their finger in the pie.

16. Initial Endless Possibilities campaign. Remember? Read here   

17. MAS and AA merger fines. Read back on Rocky here. 

18. - 28. Lets allocate ten to MAS, AA and KLIA-related issues. Tan Sri Tony Fernandez himself may have contributed to more than RM5 billion worth of wastages, leakages and what not. 

29. and 30. Past issues raised against Dato Shafie Afdal's Ministry of Rural Development. Read here. One for road construction and another for failed agropolitan projects. Heard there is more. 

31. MACC latest catch on an agent who allowed incursion of Vietnam fishermen. Maritime Agency was bribed. News here and comment by Flying Kick here.

32. to 40. What crap behind this Frost & Sullivan Award to Khazanah [read The Mole here] and their office in San Francisco [read Demi Negara here].

Let's assign 32. to 40. to Khaazanah and all their kind. It is not difficult to identify high finance style wastages in Khazanah's spending, badly conceived new business ideas, and over priced takeovers. Already, read about staff RM1.2 million charge card expenses here. We've talked about it before..

Within a couple of minutes we could compile a list of 40 for Husni. Opps ... did we say Husni? No .. no ... not Husni.

Nevertheless, should we send the list to MoF II Dato Husni Hanazlah?

Auditor General's list

Not yet. Auditor General has just released their latest Auditor general's Report for 2012. Jebat Must Die is making a quick review here on some of the crap few dishonest government servants are giving the long impeccable history of our civil service a bad name.

Adding to the list:

41.  Poor handling of school security to the tune of RM2 billion. The Star also reported on this here.

42. Lost of 309 missing items of weapons, handcuff and cars by the police worth  RM1.3 million. read in The Star also here.

43. Police purchased 5 aircraft for USD58.25 million but no fund to operate.

44. Wastage on 7,659 shoes worth RM600,000. Read The Star also here

45. Building RM199 incinerators in Langkawi, Pangkor, Tioman, Cameron Highlands and Labuan (scrapped) but no expertise to run.

46. 4-day trip to Geneva worth RM303,813 by an Information, Communications and Culture Ministry (ICCM)official to Geneva. Telekom Malaysia spent RM3.3 million. Read in The Star here.

47. Promotion and publicity for Malaysian Emergency Response Services (MERS) 999 for RM3.19mil. Paid but cancelled in the end. So much for a system, because 67% of calls are not answered.

48. Overpaid but not used clocks, scanners and miscellanuos items for RM7 million.  Busted budget by more than 7,000 times. Read The Star here

49. Performance by k-Pop from Korea for RM1.6 million by then Minister for ICCM, Dato Shaberry Chik. Thought there was no government money involved, asked opposition Ameno World here.

50. Bonuses for 7 losing GLCs. Syarikat parasana Negara gave one and half month bonus despite deficit of more than RM750 million. There are Mimos, KTM, Amanah Raya, Jambatan Kedua, IWK and Cyberview.

51. Dubious tailoring and footwear by Health Ministry worth RM550,000 to RM600,000. Long sleeved shirts and pants worth almost RM200,00 but claimed for more than RM500,000. Baju kurung worth RM2 - 3,000 worth claimed for RM5,000. Read The Star here.

52. Welfare still being given to dead people in kelantan, Sabah and Negeri Sembilan. Read in The Star here.

53. Double diesel subsidy by LKIM for RM8.14 million. Read The Star here. and here.

54. Performance bond for terminated projects  not recoup it's bond for RM15 million. Read The Star here.

55. Incomplete wewerage project in Negeri Sembilan for RM40 million. Read The Star here.

56. Same event but paid twice, thrice to Majlis Belia Malaysia. Amount to returned RM220,000 already paid to two event companies. Read The Star here.

57. ROS system not running after paid RM120,000. Read The Star here.

58. Corruption and lackadaisical officers contributed to RM2 billion lost in taxes from one third of illicit cigarettes in the country. Read NST here and here

59. PM can do without that large private jet he is using from Pak Lah's purchase. Sell it and get smaller one. For foreign visit, the rest of his entourage should fly MAS.

60. Hishamuddin's impending politically inspired announcement?

In half an hour, we could accumulate a list of 59. It only shows it is not so difficult to list 100 wastages of government. A quick check with the state level reports, including Pakatan Rakyat states,  could make up the rest.

Bet there will be disputes and questions raised on Auditor General's report but the point is that it is easy to accumulate 100 wastages of government. 

Think of the rakyat 

When government raised petrol by 20 sen on RON95, Deputy Finance Minister Dato Ahmad Maslan  claimed government was able to save RM1.1 billion this year and RM3.3 billion next year. Husni said that saving can be allocated to other meaningful and impactful projects.

Taken but if we had saved money and be more judicious in government and GLC spending, cut wastages and leakages, there is more money that could be chanelled to useful purposes.

The government saved money from subsidy rationalisation but raised the amount for BR1M. So what is the point?

Furthermore those bloody greedy wholesalers, retailers, and even property developer adjusted their prices more the cost of slight rise in the cost of transportation. So it is counterproductive and burden the rakyat.

Government wastages and leakages will lead to budgetary constraints which also makes life more difficult for rakyat.

Before government raise fuel pump prices or tinker with the budget, do think of the misery of the low-income rakyat. Cutting wastages can save government a lot more money.

Corruption 

Most of government wastages related to leakages in the system and there is likely corruption behind it. Conviction and trials on corruption is on the rise. [Read The Star here.]

Corruption is a problem and it should be addressed, not defended. To do that, we must not politicised it.

MACC needs a lot of support.

Government have taken a government critic, Dato Paul Low as Minister in charge of corruption. What have he done?

He must look beyond just blaming government because government machinery like MACC, Auditor General, etc are working hard to deal with errand government servants.

But off-course, there must be stern action against wrong doers raised by Auditor General . Read The Star here.

The problematic area is corporate corruption. Paul Low should address commercial corruption because 70% of corruption involves businesses, and business people.

Hopefully not accused of being racist for this gross simplification. Most business people are Chinese. The major players are Chinese. They participate in corruption and the taiko are linked to underworld criminals but they complain the loudest against government.

Paul Low have to make Chinese businessmen to stop giving corruption. Low-paid government officers have trouble fighting the temptation of bribes. They constitute only the receiver side of a corrupt transaction. Without givers, there is no corruption.

Despite being so loud in the past, hardly much is heard of Paul Low. Recently, he said government want to form a committee to monitor project more than RM500 million [read here].

It only increase bureaucrasy and open the possibility for more number of participants in corruption syndicate. Better idea please, Paul.

The much called "Melayu bodoh" at MACC have introduced the Wall of Shame. They are planning to introduce corporate liability amendment to the Anti Corruption Act 2009. Directors of companies will be liable for corruption by the company and not just the offenders. Givers beware!

Tell your Chinese friends not to use economic and political muscle to resist this amendment. Bet DAP and SUARAM will fight hard against it and prefer to blame MACC.

It will be just like what is happening with Crime Prevention Act which they argue is to better train the police. Their gangster links will either bribe or harass the well trained police to accept bribe also.

Boring election

To our friend in JB, this is more exciting and exhilarating stuff than writing on the UMNO campaign for status quo in an open election.

It is really unthinkable and looking idiotic when PM already said he is leaving it to the delegates to choose. He only asked for a clean campaign and electoral process as per NST report here.

An extract below:

Asked whether he was endorsing certain vice-presidential candidates, Najib said: "Whatever I say is going to be interpreted in different ways.

"So, I think I would just say that what's important is, at the end of the day, for the delegates to choose the best possible line-up for the party, to strengthen the party, and to move the party forward."

Bernama [read here in Pisau.net] reported denial from Zahid. Read extract:

Ahmad Zahid Nafi Wujud Desakan Kekal Tiga Naib Presiden Umno

KUALA LUMPUR: Naib Presiden Umno Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi menafikan dakwaan wujud desakan terhadap perwakilan untuk mengekalkan tiga naib presiden parti itu pada pemilihan Oktober ini.

Ahmad Zahid yang juga Menteri Dalam Negeri menyifatkan dakwaan itu sebagai spekulasi semata-mata kerana jawatan naib presiden parti memang terbuka untuk ditandingi.

Beliau berkata demikian kepada pemberita di lobi Parlimen hari ini ketika mengulas dakwaan penulis buku dan blogger (Shahbudin Husin) yang disiarkan dalam beberapa portal berita bahawa terdapat kempen dalam parti supaya tiga naib presiden Umno sedia ada, dikekalkan.

The talk is as written by The Star report here yesterday that there is some truth to the rumbling against directive of status quo, extract below:

Najib was asked to comment on rumblings among Umno members that there was a directive from the party leadership for them to endorse the three incumbent vice-presidents – Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

On Thursday, Federal Territory Umno officials had to issue a denial that there was a directive for the members to vote for the incumbent vice-presidents at the Oct 19 party elections.

FT Umno deputy chief Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin had said that the “suggestion” to retain the three was raised during the gathering on Tuesday by FT Umno chief Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

 Joceline Tan here has more of the story, extract below:

The trio have been campaigning as a team despite denying being a team and there have been calls to maintain the status quo at the VP level.

But laughs aside, the status quo campaign line for the VPs has not gone down well among the Umno delegates, especially those in the urban states.

There have been rumblings among Federal Territory Umno delegates after secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor reportedly asked them to retain the three VPs.

Some felt that as the secretary-general, Tengku Adnan should stay above the fray.

But it has since been claimed it was only a “suggestion” on Tengku Adnan’s part.

There was also an attempt by a state chief to get his division leaders to take a stand to endorse the incumbents. But the move failed after some of the division chiefs refused on the grounds that it would not go down well with their grassroots.

More recently, a macho division warlord from Perak had wanted to issue a statement that his division wants to endorse Zahid, Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir and Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad for the VP post.

But he had to abort his plan after receiving phone calls from top leaders telling him not to do that. He toed the line but was quite cheesed-off.

It is quite clear by now that the three incumbents do enjoy the backing of the top leadership.

The three incumbents are all closely linked to Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. Zahid and Shafie were in the Youth wing with Najib during his time as Umno Youth leader.

As for Hishammuddin, blood is thicker than water.

Where is his aristocrat breeding for Hishamuddin to go around threatening other aspirants, and resorting to "bribe"?

Choice

If we had voted and there is a reason to it, our choice (not in any order) would be Zahid, Hishamuddin and Mukhriz. We will give to Hishamuddin and verbally campaign for the acronym ZAHIM.

But not Shafie. It is not afdal to the conscience and soul to elect him. Do UMNO delegates have any more conscience?

With conviction, we say UMNO cannot have him as the face. He abused his position to by-pass campaign ethics rule by overzealously advertising daily.

There have been many unsavory stories coming out from his Ministry. Like Hazmi at 1Azam and Emir Mavani at FGV, suspect Shafie kept a blind eye to his cronies stealing poor people's money.

He hardly makes any effort to clean the crap and perception.

Our decision is still based on wastages, corruption and concern for the affair of rakyat.  

So forget about anything called Sabah quota. Even Sabahan are not supporting him. There used to be an unsaid quota for "ulamak", what happen to it? 

Edited: 3/10 9:30 AM