Thirty new camps will be added to the 41 currently being used nationwide for the national service (NS) scheme, but the sites have yet to be identified.

To be built on private land and maintained by their owners, the camps will be leased by the government for NS training stints, said Deputy Defence Minister Zainal Abidin Zin today.

During the question session in the Dewan Rakyat, he said the government had received applications from 290 contractors, and that different ones would be selected to build the camps.

Zainal Abidin said the government has no plans to build its own camps because the facilities would not be in use throughout the year and the cost of management would be high.

Instead, the government will rent the facilities at RM46 per trainee or trainer a day in Peninsular Malaysia and RM61 in Sabah and Sarawak, including the cost of meals. Each camp can house about 450 trainees and trainers.

To a question, he said the ministry may apply for a higher budget for next year's programme, as it would have to build in the rental charges.

However, part of the cost could be met by carrying forward the balance of this year's allocation of RM500 million. The ministry has spent RM389 million on the first three intakes, and will spent RM65 million on the fourth batch comprising those who had evaded reporting earlier.

Avoiding vandalism

Zainal further said that, confining trainees to special camps, would overcome the problem of vandalism at local universities campuses, which had been used for part of the three-month programme.

It was reported earlier that the University Malaya, one of the training sites, had asked the Higher Education Ministry to foot the bill for RM1 million worth of damage caused by NS trainees.

According to Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr A Hamid A Hadi, the trainees had vandalised property when some of their demands were not met.

Zainal said, however, that no request for compensation had been received from the university authorities.

"They just aired their grouses, but did not asked for compensation... They know the programme is in the interest of the nation," he said.

"The government is aware of the vandalism on campuses and has decided to stop using them. Feedback from trainees has indicated that trainees prefer to stay in camps for the whole duration of the programme."

Following the decision, Zainal said the four modules of the programme - physical training, national integration, character building and community service - will be all conducted in the camps.

Rakan Muda programme

On the same note, Zainal said more military personnel with a "good record" will be recruited next year as NS trainers to prevent immoral incidents.

The move will boost the numbers of military personnel who are serving as trainers. They currently make up 50 percent of the trainers, with the rest being volunteers.

He further revealed that the Youth and Sports Ministry will absorb NS trainees into the Rakan Muda programme to ensure the continuity of the NS programme.

Some 85,000 youths participated in the programme this year. This pioneer batch was randomly chosen from 480,000 eligible youths aged 18.

Concern has been voiced in several quarters about incidents of indiscipline during the programme including cases of fighting, assault, and alleged rape and sexual harassment.

The government announced last month that it would set up a national integration and unity parliamentary select committee to study the implementation of the programme.