Auditor-General’s report: RM16mil in SME grants not spent

KUALA LUMPUR: The Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Ministry says that appropriate action is being taken over weaknesses pointed out as in the Auditor-General’s Report 2021, well as its recommendations regarding the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) programme development grant.

Its minister Datuk Ewon Benedick said SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) as the agency involved in the programme, is taking the appropriate action.

He said the ministry would also request further information from SME Corp on its any follow-up action to address the weaknesses.

“I will request more information from SME Corp regarding the (follow-up) action taken but SME Corp has already given an explanation. It’s being taken care of by SME Corp.

“I, together with the top management and agencies under the ministry, will ensure that all comments in Auditor General’s Report 2021 are taken into consideration, especially for the upcoming Budget 2024 so every provision is prepared and will be spent as mandated by the government,” he said to reporters before chairing the 2023 National Cooperatives Consultation Council Meeting here on Tuesday (Oct 10).

Based on the Auditor General’s Report issued on Tuesday, an audit was carried out for the development grant expenditure of the SME Investment Partner (SIP) programme and the Going Export Programme (GoEx) from 2014 to 2022 involving RM59.52mil for the two programmes found that RM16.73mil SIP programme development grants were not spent.

According to the report, poor programme implementation resulted in only RM27.91mil of the RM59.52mil grant being successfully spent within the set period while RM14.88mil was spent on other programmes making a total of RM42.79mil (71.9%) of the allocation received, spent and benefited SMEs.

Following that, the report recommends that the monitoring of programme expenditure performance be carried out with the Economy and Finance ministries. – BK