When the National Service programme was first announced and the contractors identified, I was tasked by my company to ‘market’ the insurance needs of the programme and we began by writing to all the vendors.

The contractors were quite responsive and at that point of time, the defence ministry wanted them to provide bank or insurance guarantees for the funds that would be disbursed to them, which were quite sizeable.

If I am not mistaken, the amount was more than RM5 million each per year. The contract was for two or three years minimum.

Please do note that this was at the early stage of the programme and contractors were supposed to provide the necessary collateral as well. However, I was made to understand that the collateral would also be taken care of by the ministry!

My impression is that, at that point of time and still, the aim of the programme was for contractors to make lots of money. However, that is not the main issue with me.

My concern is that the contractors cut short on their supplies. For example, there were problems sourcing fire proof tents as vendors specialising in them could not produce the huge quantities needed.

Therefore, in the end, the defence ministry settled on fire retardant tents which were cheaper. It is not clear if the ministry set any minimum specifications or if the contractors were free to choose their own specs.

The best part is that the ministry did not reduce the original funding for the tents. This meant extra cash for the contractors.

Won’t contractors then be tempted to supply cheap tents to maximise their profits? Is this not a corrupt practice? More worrying, are the cheaper tents safe for our boys and girls?

My son may be drafted in two years time, hence my concern. Tents may not be in use in the future, but as a parent I have the right to know if the programme is safe given the high number of deaths that have occurred in the camps.

The present government will not abandon this programme as it would negatively affect the interested parties.

The programme was outsourced to non-military companies or companies that specialised in team-building (they awarded one contract to a hotelier) and this exacerbates my concern.

This programme does not have my support (my boys are active Boy Scouts and love the outdoors) and I have been praying that this programme will be cancelled soon.

My prayers too, in the meantime, that a major disaster does not occur. Would it be too much to ask for an investigation into the safety aspects of the NS sites?