Millions of public funds were wasted by government agencies due to the underutilisation of its equipment, as revealed by the Auditor-General’s Report 2009 tabled in Parliament today.

NONE These included four Mobile Rapidscan Max 3345 and Portal THSCAN HS 3000 scanners owned by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department and placed at its offices nationwide that cost RM31.96 million.

It was found that these machines which were acquired in 2003 were totally unused or not used to an optimum level by the government agency in the past few years due to lack of trained staff to operate the scanner or due to malfunctions.

What is worse, on Jan 14 this year the customs department gotten the finance ministry approval for a two-year extension of a maintenance company through direct negotiation for its Mobile Rapidscan Max 3345 scanner at the Tanjung Puteri Cargo Complex, Johor, despite the fact that it has not been in operation since 2006 and was in the process of disposal.

The maintenance contract was for seven Mobile Rapidscan Max 3345 scanners nationwide and is worth RM4.55 million.

“Auditors could not find any justification for the extension of the contract since the customs department is in the process of reviewing and awaiting the decision to dispose of all the machines,” the report read.

The auditors also found that another RM1.17 in million maintenance fees was paid for scanners that were not in operation.

Body scanner purchased before approval

Regarding the RM1.48 million Soter RS body scanner at the KL International Airport, which was purchased in August 2008 to combat drug trafficking, the Auditor-General’s Report revealed that the purchase was made before approval was obtained from the Finance Ministry on Oct 31, 2008.

NONE “(The purchase before approval) was made based on the urgent need to scan the entry of dangerous items such as drugs, which was at a worrying level.”

The body scanner, however, did not come into use until January 2010, because the customs department officers did not have the special knowledge to operate it.

The report also revealed that up to Feb 24, 2010, the body scanner has only been used for eight scannings.

KL Paus only utilised 137 days in three years

The Auditor-General’s Report also revealed that the Fisheries Institute of Malaysia didn’t get value for the high costs of maintaining the deep sea trawler Kapal Latihan Paus (KL Paus) , which was purchased in October 1992 for RM22 million.

NONE KL Paus was initially used for training in tuna fishing, however the training has stopped since 2002, after the foreign captain and crew which specialised in this field were dismissed.

The auditors also found that the trawler is currently only used for sailing and sea safety training for the staff and trainees of the Fisheries Department.  

It was also underutilised despite the fact that its daily fuel expenditure is around RM773, which totalled RM846,721 for the period between 2007 and 2009.

According to the report, its utilisation rate is only 12.5% or 137 days during the three-year period.

For the remaining 958 days, it was sent for maintenance for 494 days and remained at Chendering port for the other 464 days.

The government also needed to pay RM4 million for its maintenance and mileage claims.