Cops lose weapons, customs lose shoes

The Auditor General 2012 report has revealed that the Royal Malaysian Police recorded a total of 309 missing items in the form of firearms, handcuffs and vehicles.

Whereas, it also reported that the Royal Customs Department wasted a whopping RM600,000 after it purchased 7,659 pairs of shoes which were not according to specification and badly damaged.

As for the police, the missing items were recorded between 2010 and 2012, resulting in losses amounting to RM1.33 million.

The AG reported that handcuffs topped the list of missing items at 156, followed by 44 weapons and 29 police vehicles.

However, the types of missing weapons which account for 14.2 percent of the items were not specified.

Other items reported missing included 26 walkie-talkies, six cameras, four computers, 22 radios and others.

Selangor recorded the highest number of missing items with 36, followed by Penang (28), and Johor and Federal Territory recording 23 items each.

The auditor-general also reported that there was unsatisfactory management in the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters and three state police headquarters.

The AG reported that the management with regard to the loss of police assets was unsatisfactory as there were many losses recorded in 2010 and 2011 which remain unresolved and surcharge was imposed.

"Besides this, information on the loss of assets and the status of investigation between Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur and other state police contingent headquarters needed to be properly aligned," the report stated.

Police to come up with monitoring system
The police, in its reply between May 23 and June 27 this year, stated that it would come-up with a system to monitor the loss of assets and this was being developed by its information technology unit.

"The force would also develop a special team to identify weaknesses and propose improvement in investigating the loss of assets including disciplinary action to be taken on those who failed to abide by the orders," it added.

The police also noted there was a discrepancy in the statistics as there was no secretariat to monitor the losses and for the items to be deemed non-recoverable or permanent loss.

The police assured that it would come up with a standard operating procedure on what is to be done if there was a loss of the force’s asset.

"The SOP will be formulated by the end of December 2013," the AG report stated.

The AG report noted that in some instances, the police were late in lodging reports on the missing assets.

Meanwhile, on the shoes, the AG report stated that the shoes from 2009 were badly damaged after it was kept in a store for three years.

Furthermore, the report added that the sizes do not match with the officers. Tests conducted on the shoes also found the soles to be brittle.