Tuesday, April 29, 2008

A Malay Mail scoop

Damn good story, this one! I would be wearing a satisfied look if I were the one who broke this story.

Congratulations Haresh Deol and the Malay Mail.

Take a well deserved break and I know our afternoons will never be the same again after May 5.

I heard some senior journalists were not happy to be scooped!

NSC's RM22m bill raises eyebrows

By HARESH DEOL

THE National Sports Council (NSC) spent a whopping RM22.4 million for professional services, celebrations and hospitality in 2006, more than four times it had spent in 2003.

In audited reports made exclusively available to The Malay Mail covering 2003 to 2006, the council had spent RM22,335,867 in 2006 compared to the RM5,528,412 in 2003.

RM6.83 million was spent in 2004 and RM13.85 million in 2005. There were other points of contention.

NSC's spending also earned a ticking off from Deputy Auditor-General Datuk Azizah Arshad, who remarked in the 2006 audited report that the council must only spend on projects with approved budgets.

Azizah also reminded the council to be frugal in its spending, citing the example of how it had recorded excessive spending of RM86.55 million under the National Sports Trust Account (Akaun Amanah Sukan Negara) in 2006, despite only having a budget of RM45 million. The account is used for administrative purposes.

She had pointed out that the council had a surplus of RM74.7 million in the same account in 2005.

Sources told The Malay Mail that this had raised the eyebrows of some of the present NSC members who had taken over from their predecessors.

"In just over four years, the spending in this area alone had skyrocketed," said a source.

"This expenditure included entertainment, consultancy and event management."

According to copies of the reports, the council had also recorded inflated spending in three other areas. They were:
# National Sports Awards: In 2003, RM261,102 was spent, compared to RM1,237,342, more than five times that amount, in 2006; and,

# Malaysia Games (Sukma): In 2003, they spent RM11,251 to prepare for the 2004 Sukma Games that cost the council RM282,987. In 2005, it spent RM6,589 to prepare for the following year's games which eventually cost RM3,371,555; and

# For coaching and officials: In 2003, the council had spent RM496,895 but in 2006, the figure went up to RM1,052,170; (see accompanying table for details)

The source said in the case of the National Sports Awards, the jump in expenditure had baffled many as the number of recipients and prize money awarded had remained unchanged over the years.

National shuttler Lee Chong Wei and squash queen Nicol David were the winners of the 2006 National Sports Awards, pocketing RM10,000 each while paralympic athletes Mohd Salam Sidik (archery) and Siow Lee Chan (power lifting) also received RM10,000 each. There were other minor awards that did not pay as much.

"That only accounts for some RM40,000 out of the more than a million spent. Where did the rest go to," asked the source.

The source said in the case of the Sukma Games, questions have been raised on why the NSC had spent in Kedah (2006) more than 10 times than the RM300,000-odd that it did for the Negri Sembilan Sukma (2004).

While some of the money had been spent to renovate and build new facilities, no one has explained what had happened to the RM87 million additional sponsorship secured by the organiser, the Kedah State Sports Council (which is affiliated to the NSC)), said the source.

"This has not even factored in the RM100 entrance fee the individual athletes had to pay. If you go by the average of 5,000 athletes, the organisers would have collected RM500,000. That alone is close to one-sixth the expenditure chalked up by the NSC for the event (through its grant to the Kedah State Sports Council."

The source said participants in the Negri Sembilan Sukma had been charged RM20 each.

And the Kedah Sukma Games did not even organise volleyball, tennis, judo and cricket unlike previous editions!

The Auditor-General's reports bore the signatures of the former Sports Minister, who was also the NSC chairman, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, the then NSC director-general, Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz, and council member Datuk Mohd Yasin Salleh.

Efforts to get Dr Ramlan over the last week proved futile.

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

dahsyat..dahsyat!

Anonymous said...

What's up with Malay Mail's website? They only posted old stories instead.

epain said...

another example of wise spending...

as such...nobody will responsible...

and they will say, "let bygones be bygones"....

Anonymous said...

bukan satu kejutan.......pendedahan yang dibuat mm bukan perkara baru cuma meneruskan apa yang dah didedahkan sebelum ini......dikhabarkan hampir 40 pengikut setia AJALINA dibawa ke Tourism dan kebanyakannnya adalah yang memang dah dengan dia masa kat KBS...bawa2 la bertaubat.........ingat la jgn tamak haloba sngt.allah akan tarik kekayaan tu bila2 masa saja.tah esok,lusa atau bila2 masa.tu yang dinamakan QADA dan QADAR tak mcm tu rizal?

Anonymous said...

saudara rizal.....ini bukan satu kejutan.........ini sambungan@pendedahan mengikut giliran.....beberapa individu di Tourism tidur x lena lately ni....tak mcm tu rizal

Anonymous said...

yellow, its good u can vet the comments but pleaselah, get rid of the word verification.
rocky punya site pun dia kena approve the posting but takde lah word verification.

ps: i dengar malay mail website going to have a radical new look.

pps: Hidup Lionel Messi

Anonymous said...

Rizal and Mr."Handsome" Haresh,
The latest for you to do the Scoop.
Miss Minister had hired a Computer company of her cronies just to do the Key Performance Index (KPI) of MSN.Just about RM 4 million. The name of the company Advaita Nucleus Int.
For all the entertainment,the event mangement and marketing was done by her niece company and the share holder is one of the top guns in BAM. This company does banners and others.
Some more to come. Please dig this up.
Haresh by:
Your long lost friend

Anonymous said...

AG also only ticked the NSC off. Its like telling them don't do it again... I don't think the AG is even interested in finding the root of the problem, so when they leave it as it is, Datuk Zol as the DG of NSC, is the fall guy. So convenient as it is. Well, convenient for the people who actually were behind all that spending.
You squander RM22 million, and phew! Don't do it again okay. Is it because it wasn't really your (NSC's) fault and the AG knows it?

Anonymous said...

THE CENCURUT SAYS:

SHOCKING YET TRUE
MISFORTUNE YET TRUE
MISMANAGE YET....NOBODY KENA LA BRO...
POTONG RIBBON ONLY

Anonymous said...

eh rizal also handsome what :)

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Rizal and Mr."Handsome" Haresh,
The latest for you to do the Scoop.
Miss Minister had hired a Computer company of her cronies just to do the Key Performance Index (KPI) of MSN.Just about RM 4 million. The name of the company Advaita Nucleus Int.
For all the entertainment,the event mangement and marketing was done by her niece company and the share holder is one of the top guns in BAM. This company does banners and others.
Some more to come. Please dig this up.
Haresh by:
Your long lost friend
-----------------------------
EMMM... LOOK LIKE YOU GOT INSIDER BRO FROM NSC

Anonymous said...

'Long lost friend'

You are right. Both the Youth and Sports Ministry togther with the National Sports Council were 'clients' of Advaita Nucleus International (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd as stated in their website.

The exact figures, however, cannot be clarified..for now.

Anonymous said...

Tahniah MM

Ini baru perkara kecik. Banyak lagi yg menggemparkan kalau dikorek dalam2. Baru kita faham mengapa MSN terpaksa berhutang kepada persatuan-persatuan sukan. Dana yg sepatutnya digunakan untuk membantu persatuan, melatih atlet, digunakan untuk perkara yang lain......

Jabatan Odit Negara atau Public Account Committee sudah wajib meneliti kepincangan selama 4 tahun yang lalu yang berlaku di KBS dan juga agensi-agensi di bawahnya...

epain said...

what 'bout sponsorship for LTDL 2008...

was it included in the report?....arnaz? do u have the answer(s)?

Anonymous said...

he he good story la bro. the events are all organised by safirul while haridas is the kpi man lah

Anonymous said...

that kpi guy is haridas he does kpi for all associations

Anonymous said...

Bro,
I can varified that anon 10:09am info is correct. Azalina hired this company Advaita Nucleus to do MSN/ISN's KPI. These jokers don't even know how to do their job properly. They don't seem to know what is the functions of MSN/ISN. They have ONE template and force everyone to comply with that template, nevermind that the roles & functions of both MSN & ISN is different from the corporate sector. What i can conclude is that this company don't know what KPI is at all. And we have just wasted RM4mil on them...

Tekak Dalam

Anonymous said...

anon 6:01 and 6:03,
you are right. haridas is the kpi man...there another fella as well. he's the so called 'boss' la. met him once, damn arrogance!

tekak dalam

Anonymous said...

he is gowri lah

Anonymous said...

Tapi apa dia buat pun semua dia terlepas ... potong ribbon only.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I would like to set the record straight. Mr Rizal Hashim, Mr SS Dhaliwal, any other former journalist of the Malay Mail and the current DG's office had nothing to do with the exposure nor did they provide assistance in any sense.

It is also NOT a personal agenda of mine to bring any individual down.

I do not mind if certain parties feel the story is not good enough, but I take offence to those who undermine my credibility, integrity and capabilities.

I did it on my own effort and no one can rob that away from me.

rizal hashim said...

Haresh,

Ignore lah these people.

You have your byline, while I'm an open book unlike anonymous posters who hide behind anonymity or pseudonyms.

I can name individuals in the media who have vested interests and beneficiaries of financial assistance but I will resist the temptation and the urge to reveal all.

Keep up the good work, Haresh. Don't take it personal lah.

The trouble with us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

If you're not big enough to stand criticism, you are too small to be praised!

Anonymous said...

TRANSPARENCY is introduced as a means of holding public officials accountable and fighting corruption. When government meetings are open to the press and the public, when budgets and financial statements may be reviewed by anyone, when laws, rules and decisions are open to discussion, they are seen as TRANSPARENT and there is less opportunity for the authorities to abuse the system in their own interest.

TRANSPARENT procedures include open meetings, financial disclosure statements, the freedom of information legislation, budgetary review, audits, etc.

Own efforts are not appreciated these days, I know this myself... but keep up the efforts, Haresh and Rizal. I believe in the publishing of facts and figures that concern the public.

Anonymous said...

Brother or Sister Cherio,
Don't tell the public that the minister is innocent. How much they would had spent for the England trip. They went three times to survey.We know that both the DG are innocent that is we public are not blaming that Dato'Ramlan and Dato'Zul to be blamed but some one was palyng the guitar another was forced to sing along.
Cherio, Miss minister looked "like the innocnt flower but the serpent was under it.The water of the seven oceans can never wash her sin".( Macbeth)
Why are we blaming the DG's.
Kunta Kinte.

Anonymous said...

Bro
Kalau nak reveal mengenai wartawan yang terlibat tolong reveal, jangan takut. Kalau kamu ada bukti yang kukuh tulis la, apa nak takut...If you want to blog you must be brave like Raja Petra, Rocky and Zorro,dont hide behind your wife skirt and write pieces that only brings humiliation to people. Kalau takut sangat jangan blog la.
Pls continue writing untuk FAM website,Lawn Bowls punya magazine.
Kalau nak blog have some balls but again you ..... takut nak kena sue remove all the comments, because you write without facts and figures dan takut nak kena saman ke. ?

Anonymous said...

There are many jealous people in this world.
Most are from the media line. Everybody think they are hot shot reporters when they are not.
So, for those who got scooped, acceptlah. Don't go making baseless accusations unless you have the balls to reveal your name.
From what I understand, Rizal is persona non grata in the Malay Mail as Tony Francis has not forgiven him for critising the Youth and Sports Ministry's move to fund Malaysian Today.
Readlah his other post, Azalina, Malaysian Today and I.
It is obvious Rizal still longs to be a member of Malay Mail but felt he couldn't or wouldn't be allowed to function as he wants.
I may have left the NST but I still keep in touch with my old friends.
I heard the so called top notch reporters in NST, Berita Harian and Harian Metro kena one round from the big bosses for missing the story and being scooped by a relatively junior reporter.
Haresh may not be the best reporter around but he deserves credit for breaking a story.
Malay Mail should be commended for having the balls to run it.
All the best to the new Malay Mail ...I know NST doesn't want you to succeed.

Anonymous said...

cherio...
sure you are paid to defend your "big boss liar" and discredit any attempt to put her in the spotlight.

You better check your soul either still there or missing. maybe you already sold it the lady serpent for a brand new merc..

Anonymous said...

Aiseh...

In all probability that is my MONEY and you the RAKYAT going down the drain for some KPIs sh*T.

Dont cover2 line in the name of KPI la..performance la..talk c*ck!!

I submitted my Hasil Form in protest...sigh...

Anonymous said...

Very unfairlah Rizal....You haven't posted Dr. Ramlan's calrification in the NST. Unsportsmanlike. Anyway it's better than the guys who don't have the scortal gumption to clarify cos they were a@#% L***** when she was the Minister and now they pass all papers to the press...

Anonymous said...

yg tulis tu Haresh..apasal kaitkan Ghaz?

The statement was uncalled for la...orang projek kat car park tak tulis..tapi cerita karut pasal Ghaz kat car pulak tulis.