AUDIT REPORT Even the deceased have been receiving welfare aid and public housing, according to records audited by the auditor-general last year.

The Auditor-General’s Report 2012 says the Negri Sembilan Department of Social Welfare remitted money to 40 persons who had died between 2008 and 2012.

The money remitted to the 15 persons who had died before 2012 amounted to RM45,350, while no figures were given for those who died in 2012.

“Recipients who have passed away in 2012 were not taken into account because some of them have just passed away and the Welfare Department has yet to be informed,” says the report, which found the department's overall performance wanting.

The audit report also says that the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) had leased public housing to 240 people who were found to have died anywhere between two months and 18 years prior to the audit.

The report says that the lease should have ended when the tenant passed away, whereas the MPPP replied that the next-of-kin do not automatically qualify for the public housing and therefore may not want to report the death to MPPP.
        
phee boon poh denied resign 221103 03It says that it has changed its regulations so that the registered tenant has to renew the tenancy annually and that MPPP would check the status of the tenants with the National Registration Department yearly.

Meanwhile, in response to another case in Penang where the dead have been receiving welfare money, Sinar Harian quotes state exco member Phee Boon Poh (right) as saying that the payments have been stopped.

Of the RM344,540 already remitted, RM331,620 have been returned by banks as unclaimed money, whereas the remaining RM12,920 have been withdrawn by the deceased’s next-of-kin without the knowledge of the Penang Department of Social Welfare.

The article also quotes department’s director, Zulkifli Ismail, as saying that it would track down and recover the money, and that some of the next-of-kin have already started returning the money.


Related stories

Home minister: No more talk on weapons lost by police!

Unrealistic to expect zero defects in gov't, argues Low

Pakatan 'self-delusional' over audit findings, says MCA

Can KJ guarantee clean report for 2013, asks PKR

'Form special panel to tackle abuses, graft'

Previous Selangor gov't blamed for woes of Kuis

When K-Pop meets Youth and Sports Ministry