RM2.45 Million For Upkeep Of ‘Missing’ Equipment At Hospital

KUALA LUMPUR: The AG's report revealed that there are 445 units of "missing" equipment worth RM2.45 million in Hospital Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah in Klang.

Surprisingly, some of them are still incurring maintenance fees. The equipment has been categorised as "asset not found (V4L)" and yet, maintenance fees of RM9,346 are being paid for 26 of them.

A preventive maintenance plan had not been carried out for a period of 12 to 32 months, but fees of RM1.68 million were still being paid for 113 units of equipment which were not being maintained.

In addition, maintenance fees for 16 units involving RM2.56 million were still being paid despite the fact that they were damaged or not used.

The report recommends the ministry issue notices to track the start and end of services for all equipment and stop paying maintenance fees for idle/damaged/V4L units.

"Periodic inspection of assets should be done according to regulations to ensure the existence of all assets and ensure that maintenance services are carried out according to schedule. The ministry should also (demand refunds) and impose fines on the concessionaires for non-compliance and lodge a police report, and payment for the related maintenance fees should be stopped immediately," the report read.

The assets are managed under the Biomedical Engineering Maintenance Service, which was one of the support services that had been privatised.

The privatisation agreements were signed for a period of 15 years (28 October 1996 until 27 October 2011).

This programme was executed by three concessionaires – Faber Medi-Serve Sdn Bhd, Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd and Pantai Medivest Sdn Bhd – that are responsible for managing maintenance services of 185,281 units of medical equipment across the country. The Sun