KPNDKK SARAWAK UNDER MACC'S INVESTIGATION ON RM105 MIL SCAM?

-SARAWAK KPDNKK DIRECTOR HOWEVER, DECLINED TO COMMENT WHETHER THERE'S POSSIBILITY ANY OF HIS PERSONNELS INVOLVED OR OTHERWISE

IS the Sarawak Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism (KPNDKK) under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) investigation relating to the alleged RM105 million transportation scam involving false claims reported in a national paper recently?

According to Sarawak KPDNKK Director Wan Ahmad Uzir Haji Wan Sulaiman when contacted by  UnReportedNews™® yesterday his department will give their fullest cooperation to MACC on their investigation on the allegation of the RM105 million transportation scam involving false claims.

“KPNDKK will give our fullest cooperation to the MACC in their investigation on the alleged RM105 million false transportation claims reported recently in the paper and if so (the allegations are true), we (KPNDKK) will take action on those involved accordingly to any of our stipulated and relevant Acts,” he added.

Wan Ahmad Uzir who presently is in Kuala Lumpur when contacted by through the telephone yesterday however, declined to response to a question whether there is any possibility of any involvement of the KPNDKK’s staffs in the scam.

“I am presently in Kuala Lumpur and would be returning to Kuching next week,” he disclosed and would not give any comment when asked whether his official trip to the KPNDKK central HQ in Kuala Lumpur had anything to do or related with the alleged matter.

APPOINTEES SENDING CONTROLLED-SUBSIDIZED ITEMS MAKING FALSE CLAIMS  MORE THAN THE ACTUAL RUNS THEY HAD MADE

On last Sunday, a National based-newspaper stated that the transporters, suppliers and businessmen hired to send subsidised essentials like sugar, flour and diesel to people in Sarawak's interior regions have allegedly been making false claims on the RM105mil transportation fee per year given to them by the Government.

It also stated that the MACC is onto them and had arrested several people over the past few days for making false claims and are closing in on the others suppliers in several parts of Sarawak, especially those operating in Kuching, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Sibu, Kapit, Bintulu, Miri and Limbang and MACC is expected to charge several suppliers in court next week.

The paper claimed that a MACC source disclosed that the National Price Secretariat Council's appointees had agreed to send the controlled items, supplied under the community-drumming project, to the rural folk for the RM105mil transportation fee but instead, they made false claims of having made, more than the actual runs they had made despite the Government paying them the transport and shipment charges right up to the point of sale.

Under the goods distribution system, using fuel as an example, authorised transporters collect the diesel or petrol from the stations and transport them to the interior with no service of any  middlemen are involved and the Government covers the transportation costs so that the prices in the interior remain the same, said the paper.

The commission had received reports from people in these areas that the goods had not reached them although on record these had and The National Price Secretariat Council was set up under the Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry in 2008 to ensure that people in the rural areas were not charged unreasonable prices for the essential items.

The council's functions include monitoring of consumer goods in the market; preparing a Report on Consumer Goods Price as reference to the officials in the ministry and improving the distribution of essential goods to ensure the targeted groups fully benefit from the subsidies provided by the Government.

-UnReportedNews™®