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Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) calls on
Government to ensure transparency and accountability in
all government expenses and procurement
January 17, 2008
by Tan Sri (Dr) Ramon V. Navaratnam
President, Transparency International – Malaysia
Transparency International Malaysia
(TI-M) welcomes Public Accounts Committee chairman Dato'
Shahrir Abdul Samad's important statement that
transparency and accountability are expected in all
government expenses. Dato' Shahrir added that there is a
system within the Government to ensure that all expenses
and projects are carried out with transparency and the
system requires a tender committee to be set up for
every project and the committee should have some
selection and decision process. He further added that
such a system must be implemented and applied to all
expenses and projects, whether they were carried out
locally or overseas.
TI-Malaysia believes that any waste (and theft) of
public funds is unacceptable and severe action must be
taken against the culprits, including dismissal,
prosecution and a claim for restitution.
More importantly, we ask that the administrative systems
and procedures of the ministries and agencies concerned
be reviewed to stop all abuses. Any such leakages will
affect our economic competitiveness directly as there is
less funding available for development work.
Corruption is one of the major obstacles to economic
progress, and its effects on development are disastrous
with the poor being severely deprived of facilities and
amenities that they deserved.
Obviously, in the process of implementation, government
will get very poor value for its spending due to corrupt
practices and abuses arising from the non adherence to
sound rules and regulations.
TI-M calls upon government to immediately review the
system and ensure better management of public funds.
This can be done through a more active monitoring
machinery that can be adopted by the Auditor-General's
Department on an on-going audit system, as in the
private sector. Similarly, the announcement of faster
payments by government for goods and services, must give
adequate attention to the certification of good
performance on the part of suppliers and contractors.
There could be a danger that fast payments may lead to
less supervision of performance, which must not be
sacrificed for the sake of speedy settlement with
contractors.
There has to be a proper balance in the achievement of
both objectives of speedy payments and quality
performance, please.
What taxpayers want is really "good value for their
money", without corruption.
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