KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Many victims of the December 2014 floods were still staying in tents and transit homes in the second half of 2015 as 40 per cent of the new homes planned for them remained unbuilt, a federal audit has revealed.

The Auditor-General’s report released today acknowledged, however, that the five flood-stricken states of Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak and Sabah complied with the government’s directive to “fast-track” the preliminary process for restoration works and the new permanent home project (RKB).

The preliminary process included selecting and verifying those eligible for aid, appointment of contractors, work executions and certification, as well as payment procedures.

But based on the audit during September to November 2015, the department said the overall performance of the project to build new houses for flood victims was “less satisfactory”.

“A total of 557 (40 per cent) out of 1395 RKB’s units was incompleted resulted flood victims were still staying in transit homes, tents and so on,” the first series of the Auditor-General’s (AG) 2015 report said.

In listing the other six weaknesses of the project, the AG report said data on RKB’s recipients and restoration works were not updated and were unreliable.

It said 54 of those who received new homes or received aid for restoration works were actually ineligible as their damaged houses were not considered as total loss, or the houses were unoccupied or rented, or they were owners of shop-lots or non-resident owners.

But 36 flood victims who had their houses destroyed or damaged by floods did not receive new houses or help for restoration works.

Restoration work done on 109 houses were also out of the intended scope, the report said.

“These include repairs of stores and barn; construction of new wall and garage; paint jobs for brick gate; roof replacements on houses unaffected by floods and installation works for grilles, fan, cabinets and ceiling,” it said.

As for 17 houses that were built or repaired, flood victims did not occupy them due to an unwillingness to move in, as well as problems in provision of basic utilities and non-official handover, the report said.

Other problems saw contractors being unable to complete the project to build new houses, abandoned projects and issues with the compliance of the fixed design and appropriateness of the project sites, the report said.

The Auditor-General recommended that the National Disaster Management Agency, which was formed last August to replace the National Security Council’s role, establish a comprehensive standard operating procedure for post-flood programmes.

It also said the new agency should review the aid recipient selection mechanism for a transparent and clear selection, besides coordinating the efficient matching of completed new houses to the intended recipients.