Sunday, September 16, 2007

rm 224.00 for a set of four screwdrivers, rm 8,254.00 for a 3.1 megapixel camera, etc!...

there are people complain about the quality... they are people complain about the price too...

honestly... the question now is, do they really care about the quality?!?... a proper 'qc department' may be able to help...

i mean, come on.. as long as their own respective tummy is filled... why bother about the quality of the goods eh?!?...

uncle sam would be the best example... after tens of millions ringgit spent on renovating parliament.. but, still have defects to it.. wat he did next?!?.. ask for huge amount of money just to do survey and then bigger amount to repair it!..


p/s ; the renovated sections of the parliament is very impressive.. but, after spending millions of ringgit, some sections still remained the same fm the day parliament was built...

p/s ; fm the budget announced by aab couple of days back... approx rm 70 million is allocated for the parliament... but, allocation for jakim is approx 700% more!... any sense to it?!?...







Paying through the nose for tools

By ROYCE CHEAH, ELIZABETH LOOI and MANJIT KAUR

PETALING JAYA: Would you pay RM224 for a set of four screwdrivers?

Probably not, but that was what the Government paid to supply tools for students at the eight National Youth Skills Institutes (IKBN) around the country, according to the Auditor-General’s (AG) report.

The AG said the screwdrivers had a market price of RM40 and according to pictures in the report, resembled the average Philips screwdrivers you could buy in any hardware shop.

And it does not stop there – the AG went a step further by examining the prices paid for 12 other tools and equipment bought for the IKBN project, comparing it with market prices when the procurement was done in late 2002.

Among these were technical books consisting 10 titles that had a price tag of RM10,700 and a 3.1 megapixel digital camera that was bought for RM8,254.

For the 13 items that the report highlighted, the Government paid RM8.39mil more than the market price at that time.

According to the report, consultants for the Youth and Sports Ministry had reached an estimated price tag of RM399.67mil for the equipment for the IKBN project which later ballooned to RM767.98mil after two appeals by the ministry for additional allocations.

“The ministry said more money was needed in anticipation of a bigger student population and that getting equipment from the same supplier meant prices would remain the same.

“But there was no proof that market research was done to identify the prices of the items and equipment because minutes for the negotiation meetings were not prepared,” the report said.

It said without the minutes, the auditing team was unable to find out if efforts were made to reduce prices.

The AG also said that the ministry’s secretary-general (KSU) had signed off 11 contracts worth between RM7.99mil and RM74.2mil that were related to the IKBN project, on behalf of the Government.

“The KSU only has the authority to sign contracts worth less than RM5mil. Anything larger should be signed by the minister or someone to whom the authority has been given.

“However, during the audit, no such letter giving the authority to the KSU presented itself,” the report said.

The report said there were also discrepancies such as one supplier being paid more than the other for exactly the same equipment.

One example the AG highlighted showed one supplier getting RM1.24mil more than the other for identical engineering equipment.


(http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/9/9/nation/18832193&sec=nation)

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