KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today urged the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to increase financial aid for senior citizens.
In its full report on PAC's review of the Senior Citizens Assistance Scheme (BOT), PAC urged the ministry and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to review the extension period for financial aid to senior citizens to ensure the assistance to the recipients is not cut or delayed.
The financial aid scheme provides RM300 per month to eligible targeted groups.
“PAC wants the ministry or the Social Welfare Department to reinforce visits and monitoring on the field.
“The department should also provide training courses to the Activity Centre for Older Persons (Pawe) staff to enable them to care after or manage senior citizens more professionally,” it said in its list of recommendations following the probe.
Both the ministry and department were also urged to ensure all equipment supplied for Pawe to be maintained and the centre should not be dependent only on government grant.
The report was made public in Parliament today.
PAC, along with the Audit Report, previously found weaknesses in the cash distribution of BOT, which included weaknesses in the verification and payment process and payout to deceased recipients.
The reports also found Pawe had misused a government grant allocation amounting to RM95,200, and that a sum of RM70,688 of expenditure by the centre was not in accordance with the guidelines and there was no application filed for the expenses.
PAC said the related enforcement agencies were told to provide information on the investigation on the misused grant.
PAC chairman Datuk Seri Hasan Arifin said the hearing on the BOT scheme and issues surrounding it was held last October.
“PAC acknowledge that the country it moving towards an ageing society.
“The ministry should act more proactively and find other alternatives to become a welfare state,” he said in a statement.
The inquiry was conducted after the matter was highlighted in the 2016 Audit Report tabled in Parliament in July 2017.
