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Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) calls on
Government to ensure transparency and accountability in
all government expenses and procurement
January 2, 2008
by Tan Sri (Dr) Ramon V. Navaratnam
President, Transparency International – Malaysia
Transparency International Malaysia strongly supports
the new guidelines introduced by the National Audit
Department ("NAD") to ensure that government officials
entrusted to make investments with public funds must
follow new guidelines on accountability and also have
the necessary credentials.
The new directive also requires that members of
committees giving out government tenders should also be
qualified and be present during all meetings to ensure
procedures are followed before a final decision is made.
The introduction of an Accountability Index ratings
system for government ministries, government agencies
and statutory bodies, local authorities etc is a step in
the right direction. We are also encouraged that the
Auditor-General, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang and the NAD are
pushing for suitably qualified and experienced employees
are appointed to important positions and for proper
succession plans to ensure no disruption in public
services.
The proposal to correlate promotion of
secretaries-general and department heads to their
respective financial performance index will help ensure
accountability in the stewardship of public funds and
bring comfort to our tax payers.
Amongst others, the guidelines requires that department
heads make surprise checks to ensure proper management
and utilisation of funds and timely and transparent
quarterly reports by financial management committees and
development committees.
We especially welcome the requirement that government
assets should be kept and maintained on schedule and
used strictly only for are official work is very timely.
The issuance of this new directive is a clear sign that
the Auditor-General is serious about checking corruption
and abuse of public funds and public assets and is in
line with the Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary's
publicly stated goal of improving the delivery system,
under PEMUDAH.
TI-Malaysia also urges PEMUDAH to take heed of this
latest directive and help monitor compliance with it
amongst the departments and agencies concerned.
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