AG Report: Falsified bank statements found in the Education Ministry

The Education Ministry received 359 falsified bank statements from tenderers appointed under the cooked food supply (BMB), Building and Area Cleaning Services (KBK), and Security Control Services (PKK) contracts that went into effect on Jan 1, 2019, says the third series of the Auditor-General's Report 2018.

The report noted that the Education Ministry did not verify the submitted bank statement copies with the banks before issuing the sales and service tax (SST).

"This resulted in the falsification of bank statements by the tenderers," stated the report released on Tuesday (July 14).

The report added that the Education Ministry had received complaints of falsified bank statements involving tenderers from the BMB service, Building and Area Cleaning Services (KBK) and Security Control Service (PKK) contracts that went into effect on January 1,2019.

The report noted that this involved 793 tenderers comprising 319 BMB, 259 KBK and 215 PKK tenderers.

Based on the confirmation of bank statement records by the Education Ministry up until Jan 31,2020, the report said that the banks involved confirmed that 359 tenderers had untrue bank statements (45.3%).

Of the 359 tenderers, 175 (48.8%) involved BMB services tenderers, 110 (30.6%) KBK tenderers and 74 (20.6%) PKK tenderers.

"Our audit found that the Education Ministry then took immediate action by issuing 162 Purpose of Termination (NTP) notices starting from July 2019. After the Education Ministry received and evaluated the contractor's feedback, 145 Termination Notices (NP) were issued to the contractors involved," it said.

The report also noted that the Education Ministry too had made a complaint to the Finance Ministry and had its investigation report submitted to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).