Horror stories behind the AG Report- 1

We are sometimes appalled at the snootiness of lawmakers who poke fun and trivialize the serious side of governance. A clear example of such attitude involves the recent delayed supply of the auditor’s general report. It is true there is no law that demands the Auditor’s Report be given alongside budget documents. Using the same argument, there are no laws on many things. The lawyer’s un-lawyerly adage is you can break any laws as long as you are not caught.

It is also equally true, in the interest of good governance and accountability which any responsible government pledges itself to, the AG Report must be expeditiously supplied to lawmakers. Otherwise, it gives rise to a cause of concern that the delay is an attempt to shorten a critical assessment of the spending habits of government agencies. Lawmakers are guided by a higher sense of propriety, responsibility and accountability that demands they operate beyond the technical confines of written rules.

So it is correct when lawmakers demand to see the AG Report that by convention is provided alongside budget documents. It was disingenuous for a lawmaker to state recently that there is no law compelling the AG Report must be supplied together with other budget documents.

In my experience as an ADUN in Pahang, the auditor’s report came along with the budget documents. This is necessary for legislators to go through the spending habits of institutions of government. That will ensure matters are debated as they should be.

The AG Report has acquired the status of almost an absolutely necessary addendum for the purpose of intelligent and responsible analysis of government spending habits. I have found them necessary to provide justification or grounded criticisms to the spending habits of government.

It is in these documents that we find most justifications for the criticisms directed at deficit spending and of government debt. By the way, the claim that 2012 debt is within tolerance limits is simply the result of artful manipulation of the 2012 GDP figures. When the finance minister announces that our GDP will grow by 5-6%, as a percentage or proportion, the 2012 debt will indeed remain within our psychological barrier. It enabled the minister to state our debt to gdp ratio is good. In terms of absolute numbers on the other hand, the debt to GDP ratio is much bigger than last year’s. So, the declaration that the economy will grow by 5-6% was necessary so as to keep the proportion of debt to GDP acceptable. It was just a trick.

The more pointed criticisms about deficit budget are the hidden financial indiscipline that goes along with spending with wanton abandon. The ministry waiting and wanting to be crucified is the Tourism Ministry because its minister is loud and appears to be pushing her bravado image to the limits. And so she reaps what she has sowed.

The Tourism Ministry overpaid nearly RM270 million for advertisements when it chose to use direct bookings instead of open tenders. So the paying of 1-2 million for setting up websites is peanuts compared to the cost of placing advertisements. It is indicative of the minister’s inability and incompetence of putting her ministry in order. The same vendor has been at it- placing exorbitant advertisement fees for years. If the same vendor can control the Tourism Ministry in almost a cartel-like embrace, that should raise everyone’s concern of a possibility that ministry officials are more than just good friends with the particular vendor. It can suggest that corrupt practices and favoritism in return for consulting fees is rampant at the ministry and the loud mouthed minister is not able to do anything about it.

The ministry also spent a whopping RM1.95 million to buy 1,000 racks — RM1, 950 per rack — to hold its tourism pamphlets for the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 campaign. Perhaps it’s time for the ministry to set up an in-house workshop for the fabrication of display racks since these are going to be used continuously. We are not going to nit-pick at the ministry’s inability to explain the unaccounted or missing 149 units of racks amounting almost a quarter of a million Ringgit – but that would surely be grounds to trigger a domestic inquiry. Why would the ministry be billed for the missing 149 units and if that can happen to 149 units, can the ministry be certain that they actually got 1000 units?

A minister and her ministry can’t even handle the case of display racks and yet she is entrusted to put Malaysia on the world tourism map. These qualities must be the new elements that make up a candidate’s winnable constitution.

Posted by sakmongkol AK47