KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21— The Auditor-General (A-G) will conduct a follow-up audit on the Education Ministry’s RM 4.1 billion 1BestariNet programme nationwide as concerns about the programme remain within both the audit department and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
“We have decided that the A-G will make a follow-up audit and PAC members will visit the schools ourselves,” PAC chairman Datuk Seri Hasan Ariffin said during a press conference today after the A-G’s briefed to PAC on its latest report tabled in Parliament today.
“I collected information in my own constituency in Rompin, and we found that 60 per cent of the schools in my area have bad performance when it comes to 1BestariNet.
Putrajaya only rolled out the first phase of the programme, which aimed to cover all 10,000 schools nationwide.
The cost for the first phase was RM663 million, but the programme was plagued by bad performance complaints from teachers and other stakeholders, Hasan said.
The PAC previously conducted its own inquiry into the programme after the A-G highlighted the delay in the programme’s implementation in the 2013 Audit Report.
In its report on the 1BestariNet probe tabled to Parliament in October this year, PAC urged a review for the whole programme due to the delay in delivery.
The programme was supposed to provide 4G broadband connectivity for all schools in Malaysia to enable virtual learning platforms.
Meanwhile, Hasan also said that PAC would immediately start probing Ministry of Health’s maintenance of hospitals, and also Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry over oil palm subsidy.
Both the issues were highlighted in the latest audit report.
