KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 6 — The Auditor General’s (A-G) report highlighted that RM5.65 million of funds for Malaysia’s domain provider, Malaysia Network Information Centre (MYNIC) Bhd, were not used for their intended purpose and did not obtain the ministry’s sanction.
MYNIC, which comes under the aegis of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia to manage the .my domain, received RM42.09 million from the ministry in grants from the period 2011 to 2017. The grant comprised a development grant of RM41.11 million and RM975,000 as an operating grant.
The report showed that a small portion of the development grant for the .my 4 Belia and myBuddies DEALS projects was not spent according to its original intended purposes.
The audit report revealed that the amounts of RM3.68 million (12.5 per cent) under the 10th Malaysia Plan and RM1.97 million (16.8 per cent) under the 11th Malaysia Plan were used for expenditure that was not sanctioned by the ministry.
This expenditure included operating expenses, such as remuneration of fixed term employees (bonuses, interest on housing loan, EPF and SOCSO deductions), mileage claims, group insurance, utility and telephone bills, rental of premises and monthly parking charges.
The audit review also discovered that MYNIC used part of its development grant for three projects amounting to RM90,381 to make donations and contributions to charities and conducting the “Coffee with MYNIC” event, a buka puasa event, and to purchase of corporate souvenirs.
Such expenditure was not consistent with the purpose of the projects and without the approval of the ministry.
“For the DEALS 2016 project, MYNIC was allocated RM300,000 to appoint a consultant to conduct a survey,however, the body conducted the survey in-house and did not obtain the ministry’s approval regarding the change,” said the report.
The report has highlighted this as one of the weakness in the financial management of the company.
