I APPLAUD the Education Ministry’s breakfast programme for pupils next January.
It is a noble idea to provide 2.7 million pupils a nutritious breakfast for their growth and cognitive development.
However, there are concerns.
With RM1.6 billion per annum at stake, the competition to win the bid for the project started even before the announcement was made. This scenario provides fertile ground for corruption to rear its ugly head.
This happened in the 1Malaysia Milk Programme, which was suspended due to alleged corruption.
It is difficult to eliminate corrupt practices.
Therefore, the ministry must ensure the bidding process is clean and transparent.
It is recommended that a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission official be invited to be a member of the tender board, as well as stakeholders such as the National Parent-Teacher Association.
Another concern is the prevalence of rent-seeking behaviour due to the high stakes involved.
According to Investopedia, rent seeking is an economic concept that occurs when an entity seeks to gain added wealth without any reciprocal contribution of productivity.
Well-connected individuals and officials enrich themselves without adding value. The ministry must not allow big shots to call the shots.
Next is the concern about subcontracting. It is not clear whether one company will be awarded the contract.
If this is so, there will be many subcontracts down the line.
What eventually happens is that the final contractor, which could be the canteen operator, will get only a small portion of the contract price and may not be able to deliver according to the specifications in the programme.
Therefore, implement the programme in stages.
As it would be a logistical nightmare for the main contractor to implement the programme in all schools at one go, the suggestion is that the first phase be implemented in specific schools in each state (say one urban, one semi-urban and one rural school) for a trial period of two months.
This way, problems can be identified at an early stage. Principals, teachers and others can provide feedback to the ministry.
POLA SINGH
Kuala Lumpur