KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 – About 6,000 people have cashed their 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) vouchers more than once since 2012 until early last year, the first series of the Auditor-General’s Report 2014 revealed today. It said 2,188 recipients for BR1M had cashed in their voucher more than once in 2012, which amounted to RM1.11million. While, a total of 2,490 recipients for BR1M 2013 that amounted RM1.14 million and a total of 1,899 recipients for the first phase of BR1M 2014, which amounted to RM1.09 million.
The report said as of Dec 31, last year the number of recipients who cashed their voucher more than once and failed to refund the Finance Ministry stood at 1,555 people for BR1M 2012, 1,850 people for BR1M 2013 and1,401 people for BR1M 2014. It noted that the Audit carried out at three selected state coordinators’ office namely Selangor, Johor and Sabah found irregularities in their BR1M vouchers distribution process in 2012 and 2013.
In efforts to address the issue, the report has recommended to the Finance Ministry and the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia to increase awareness among recipients on the requirement to open a bank account to channel cash assistance directly into their account. It also recommended to update the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) from time to time consistent with improvements made to BR1M programme each year; and to replace the BR1M voucher with an approval letter for recipients without bank accounts to prevent recurrence of recipients cashing in their BR1M voucher more than once.
