Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) urges Government to investigate blatant mismanagement of public funds as reported by the Auditor General.
Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) has followed with concern media reports that quoted the Auditor-General’s 2006 Report highlighting cases of mismanagement of public funds by various ministries in the country. It is laudable that the Auditor-General upheld transparency by reporting these malpractices. However, the facts and figures point to serious cases of administrative corruption and malpractices within government agencies and departments.
Among others, it was reported that the Youth and Sports Ministry paid very inflated prices for inexpensive and commonly available items. For the 13 items that the report highlighted, the Government paid RM8.39mil more than the market price at that time. These procurements at highly inflated prices were paid by Government to supply tools for students at the eight National Youth Skills Institutes (IKBNs) around the country, according to the Auditor-General’s (AG) report. The report stated that the consultants for the Youth and Sports Ministry had reached an estimated price tag of RM399.67mil for the equipment for the IKBN project which later ballooned to RM767.98mil after two appeals by the ministry for additional allocations.
All in all, the Report stated that the ministry’s secretary-general had signed off 11 contracts worth between RM7.99 million and RM74.2 million that were related to the National Youth Skills Institute (IKBN) project on behalf of the government, which was reportedly in excess of his signing authority. An example highlighted showed one supplier getting RM1.24mil more than another supplier for identical engineering equipment supplied. The Customs Department was found to be using “non-user friendly and inefficient” computer systems with outmoded operating systems costing RM290 million. The Customs Department had since appointed consultants to develop a new system for RM451 million which the Auditor-General felt was not warranted when the use of the current system was still not optimized.
Another case highlighted by the Report was that of the Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute spending RM300 million without approval.
TI-Malaysia believes that such wanton 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 how it is possible that the administrative systems and procedures of the ministries and agencies concerned allow such abuses?
Such leakages will affect our economic competitiveness directly as there is less fund 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, government is getting very poor value for its spending.
TI-M calls upon government to immediately clean the system and ensure better management of public funds.
TI-M is very dismayed at the various agencies inability or unwillingness to enforce accountability in the management of public funds.
Issued by
Tan Sri (Dr) Ramon V. Navaratnam
President
Transparency International – Malaysia
