AG report: Cops lose firearms and vehicles worth RM1.3mil while Customs Had to destroy RM600,000 worth of its own shoes

AG report: Cops lose guns, firearms and vehicles worth RM1.3mil while Customs destroy RM600,000 worth of its own shoes

KUALA LUMPUR: Some RM1.3mil in assets, including firearms, vehicles and handcuffs were lost by police over the last three years, according to the the 2012 Auditor-General’s report presented to Parliament Tuesday.

This was among the wastages highlighted in the report which also found the police’s management of missing assets unsatisfactory.

It noted that there were also delays in discovery of the missing assets and in reporting losses to the department head and to the police and in preparing an initial report on the missing assets.

The report also stated that there were still many missing cases in 2010 and 2011 that had yet to be solved, as well as surcharges that have yet to be collected.

“Besides that, records in Bukit Aman and state police contingent headquarters containing information on missing assets and the status of investigations need to be coordinated,” it added.

The items missing from the police force were recorded between 2010 and 2012, resulting in losses amounting to RM1.33 million.

The auditor-general reports that handcuffs topped the list of missing items at 156, followed by 44 weapons and 29 police vehicles.

In another case involving the Customs Department, the report stated that RM602,089 worth of shoes bought for its staff were destroyed because of wrong specification.

The department destroyed the 7,659 pairs of new footwear purchased in 2009 for staff after finding that the quality of the shoes and boots had degraded after being kept in its store for three years.

The report said the sizes also did not meet the needs of the officers and sample tests conducted by the Science Technology Research Institute of Defence (STRIDE).

STRIDE found that the soles of the shoes had turned brittle and split, the report said.

It said that the goods were part of the department’s uniform distributed to its staff with each person allocated two pairs of shoes before the end of April every year.

THESTAR