KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — The fund management and financing activities for five programmes or schemes under the National Entrepreneurial Group Economic Fund (Tekun Nasional) are less than satisfactory, including funds channelled beyond the set allocation, according to the Auditor-General’s Report (LKAN) 2022.
According to the report, a total of RM395 million in funds allocated for 11 programmes were received, as of December 31, 2021, and funds for two programmes were channelled to entrepreneurs according to the allocations, namely the Micro Sector Business Recovery Financing Scheme (CBRM) 2.0 and the Informal Financing Scheme (SPIN 2.0).
“Funds for the three programmes which have been channelled to entrepreneurs in excess of the allocation are Tekun — Bumiputera, with an excess of RM174.63 million; Indian Community Entrepreneur Development Scheme (SPUMI) (RM10.44 million) and Tekun Mobilepreneur 4.0 (RM4.06 million). The RM325 million allocation received for five programmes was fully distributed to entrepreneurs within two to eight months.
“There is an internal fund, amounting to RM39.13 million, which is used, and it cannot be determined whether it has received the approval of the Board of Trustees, the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative and the funds for six programmes are not channelled to entrepreneurs,” it said.
It also added that there were 13 out of 80 samples of entrepreneurs who did not fill in the application form completely, and 17 out of 80 samples of entrepreneurs who did not submit supporting documents completely, with the amount of funding involved being RM0.74 million.
“In addition, Tekun Nasional does not have a strong security system to prevent it from being hacked. The applications were processed, even if the information or supporting documents were incomplete. Funding approval management is good.
To improve Tekun Nasional’s fund management and financing activities, the management and the Tekun Nasional Board of Trustees need to take effective measures to address the weaknesses raised in this report.
“Among the recommendations is that data loss should be avoided by providing a support database, and carrying out data copying activities periodically, as well as the development of a disaster recovery plan.
“Also ensure that entrepreneurs who receive Tekun Nasional funding have the potential to continue their business, and have a good credit history to make repayments. The credit score calculation needs to take into account other liabilities of the entrepreneur, and the repayment capacity system needs to be updated accurately,” it said.
It also added that Tekun Nasional can increase efforts to collect refunds according to the set period, through enforcement actions such as visits to homes/premises, issuance of Notices of Demand (NOD) and litigation actions.
“Also reviewing policies related to second or subsequent financing, to ensure entrepreneurs are able to repay the first financing before the next financing is made,” it added. — Bernama
