Minister Admits Rm16 7mil Of Sme Grants Not Spent

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Entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister Ewon Benedick said he had asked SME Corp to follow up on the auditor-general’s findings.KUALA LUMPUR: Entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister Ewon Benedick has admitted to weaknesses in spending within his ministry after the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report highlighted that more than RM16 million in requested funds had not been utilised.
He said SME Corporation Malaysia (SME Corp) is taking appropriate action following the recommendations in the report.
“The ministry has noted the report’s criticism related to the SME Corp programme. I will request for more information from SME Corp regarding the (follow-up) actions taken but they have already given an explanation. It’s being taken care of by SME Corp.”
The report issued today said an audit was carried out for the expenditure of the RM59.52 million development grant for the “SME investment partner (SIP)” programme and the “going export programme” from 2014 to 2022.
The report found that RM16.73 million of SIP programme development grants were not spent.
According to the report, poor programme implementation resulted in only RM27.9 million of the grant being successfully spent, while RM14.9 million was spent on other programmes.
The report recommends that monitoring of expenditure should be carried out jointly by the ministry, along with the economy and finance ministries.
“We will ensure that all comments in the report are taken into consideration, especially for the upcoming budget, so that every provision is prepared and will be spent as mandated by the government,” he said at the 2023 national cooperatives consultation council meeting here.
The report also said SME Corp needed to plan carefully and take into account all the needs of SMEs before applying for funds from the ministry. - FMT

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