RM10.879bil in cooking oil subsidies lost while shelves run empty: Who is accountable?

The Public Accounts Committee's (PAC) revelation that RM10.879bil in cooking oil subsidies failed to reach their intended beneficiaries between 2019 and February 2025 exposes serious weaknesses in the government's subsidy management, market monitoring and enforcement.

The government has consistently promoted subsidy rationalisation and targeted subsidies as a means of ensuring assistance reaches those who genuinely need it. Yet the PAC's findings raise an unavoidable question: if the system is now supposedly more targeted and efficient, how could RM10.879bil have leaked from the subsidy programme?