KUALA LUMPUR, March 17 ― The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said today that the Education Ministry should not continue with the RM4 billion 1BestariNet project in schools, and that the first phase of the plan had been poorly executed.
Its chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed urged the ministry to not carry out the second phase of the plan.
“At the end of the day, the implementation of the first phase was poor and it shouldn't be continued but it's up to the ministry, as they are the people in charge,” he told reporters in Parliament.
So far, the Education Ministry has paid YTL Communications Sdn Bhd RM663 million, he added.
The project is expected to take 15 years to complete, worth RM4.077 billion involving 10,000 schools.
The 1BestariNet project that aims to provide high-speed 4G Internet access to schools began in 2011. Last year, the Auditor-General’s Report found that the software and equipment was used by just one per cent of students in the participating schools.
The Pulai MP pointed out that YTL Communications Sdn Bhd had delivered the promised infrastructure, but the actual user experience has been poor.
Today, Nur Jazlan said MoE secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad told the committee that the ministry will go ahead with phase two.
“So, what the ministry said is that they will take steps to basically improve the user experience.
“I assume they are doing improvements, if not they will not decide to go to the second phase,’’ he said.
He said the PAC hearing has been postponed until the Education Ministry is able to locate three individuals who were in charge of the project during the planning and implementation stage of phase one, including former MoE secretary-general Datuk Rosli Mohd.
Nur Jazlan said the hearing into this matter is expected to continue next month at the earliest as the PAC has other matters pending.
