‘Govt holding on to Auditor’s report’

Pakatan Rakyat MPs claim that the government is deliberately delaying the release of the Auditor-General's Report.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Auditor-General (A-G) Report is apparently being held back by the government despite being completed prior to the Budget 2012, Pakatan Rakyat MPs claimed.

Sungai Petani MP (PKR) Johari Abdul said that he called the A-G’s office yesterday, only to be told that the report was already sent out.

“The A-G’s office said they finished it (the report) much earlier than last year. They said they’ve done a better job (too), but the reports are not here,” he told reporters in the Parliament lobby today.

“The A-G’s office was shocked when they heard that MPs did not get it… where is it (the report)? Is it in the A-G’s office, in the Prime Minister’s Office or in Parliament?” he asked.

Johari was also accompanied by Balik Pulau MP (PKR) Yusmadi Yusoff, Pokok Sena MP (PAS) Mahfuz Omar and Tumpat MP (PAS) Kamaruddin Jaafar.

At the same time, Mahfuz confirmed that some states, including Kelantan, had already received a copy of the individual state audit reports.

“There are some states that have gotten a copy of the report but Parliament hasn’t gotten it yet,” he said.

Earlier this week, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz said that the report would be released after a go-ahead from the Cabinet this Friday.

It is expected that the report, which is usually given out before the annual Budget is announced, would only be released two weeks after this Friday.

Statutory responsibility

Johari said that the A-G Report was important as it would detail the country’s actual economic status.

“How can we talk about the Budget when we don’t know about the health of this year’s Budget?” he asked.

He suggested that certain leaders in the government were keeping the report because the contents were not to their liking.

The government, he said, was probably in the midst of drafting answers in response to some difficult issues mentioned in the report.

Yusmadi said that the A-G’s report was unlike any other report in the country, and added that it had a statutory responsibility.

This, he said, meant that if the responsible party did not release it, action could be taken against them.