He added that his ministry was working with the project vendors, YTL Communications, to fix any issues raised by the PAC.
“We will examine PAC’s report and take appropriate action to fix the issues raised, which include the contract’s terms, the supplying company and the disappointing Internet speed.
“The ministry is not treating the issue lightly, and we intend to make it right,” he was quoted as saying by the daily.
On Tuesday, the PAC had urged the Auditor-General to conduct a second review of the 1BestariNet project saying that apart from the project being riddled with numerous suspicious expenses, the contracts awarded had been poorly managed as well.
Tbe PAC went so far as to recommend that the ministry scrap altogether the 1BestariNet project, which was initiated in 2011 and meant to be carried out in three phases over 15 years.
The RM4.1 billion 1BestariNet project, launched by then education minister Muhyiddin Yassin, was aimed at providing government schools with high-speed 4G connectivity and an online learning platform with the Frog VLE (Virtual Learning Environment).
However, the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) calls its implementation an abject failure, with teachers and schools having to fork out their own money for internet connection.
“Only a handful of students benefitted from using the internet service.
“If there were 10 students, only half could use the programme,” NUTP president Kamarozaman Abd Razak told FMT earlier this week in response to the PAC report.
Kamarozaman added that constant internet service disruptions greatly affected the learning process.
Meanwhile, DAP lawmaker Zairil Khir Johari said the PAC’s findings proved that the 1BestariNet project should not have been implemented in the first place and that the wastages stemmed from appointing a contractor that did not benefit the government.
“It confirms my criticisms of the project that I raised in 2013 when I was first elected to Parliament,”the Bukit Bendera MP told FMT.
The PAC’s probe into the implementation of 1BestariNet began as far back as March 2015 with then PAC chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamad said that explanations were needed on the weaknesses in the first phase, involving funds worth RM663 million.
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