Auditor General’s job of keeping government honest, in Pua’s words, “is frightening”

Civil servants who have been negligent or careless in carrying out their duties, resulting in the loss of public funds, should at the very least be subjected to internal disciplinary measures, said Auditor General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang (pic) today.

"Depending on the severity of the offence and the findings of the disciplinary committee, the penalties can range from a warning letter to withholding increment, demotion and, in extreme cases, even sacking," he said.

"The heads of department must also monitor the actions of their subordinates and be more accountable instead of dismissing the problem with a shrug of their shoulders.

"There are 1.4 million civil servants nationwide involved in hundreds of projects involving public funds."

Ambrin faced the public today for the first time at a forum entitled Audit Report: Leaks or Lapses at the Karangkraf headquarters in Section 15, Shah Alam. The other panel members were Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission chief chairman Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed, DAP publicity secretary Tony Pua (pic) and Public Accounts Committee chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed.

Pua said the excuses given by civil servants to explain the millions of ringgit wasted or mismanaged was unacceptable to taxpayers.

He said negligence, ignorance and indifference was not an excuse to waste taxpayers' money

"I have been a member of the Public Accounts Committee for five years and I still hear the same song being played every year. The wastage and financial mismanagement are attributed to negligence and carelessness on the part of civil servants.

"The government is obviously not interested or lacks the conviction to stop this.

"Given that the Auditor General and his staff can only check 160 departments as a small sample study due to the lack of manpower, this is frightening. "The public is entitled to wonder whether government departments are rotten from top to bottom given the same wastage and mismanagement is reported consistently every year. This is why the public is angry with the government," Pua said.

He pointed out that if the police can explain the loss of 44 firearms by saying it could have fallen in the sea, what would other government departments think of? Would they bother to shape up given that the country's top law enforcement agency was no different from other agencies?

"The political will and conviction to change and take responsibility must begin with all the ministers. They should be aware of what is going on within their respective ministries and not use the excuse that it is the responsibility of their officers."

PAC chairman Nur Jazlan drew boos from the 500-strong audience present at the forum when he said the public should not criticise the police as it could affect their morale and performance.

Nur Jazlan said if the police decided they did not want to give their best, the safety of the public would be put at risk.

He said the key to reducing the wastage and financial mismanagement in government departments was to instil the fear of being audited among civil servants. He said if the civil servants feared that, they would be more careful and diligent in carrying out their tasks, which would reduce wastage.

"Presently, civil servants do not care whether they are audited or not, because they know no action will be taken against them. We have to change this mentality and make them responsible and accountable for public funds."

Abu Kassim chipped in, saying the MACC has investigated hundreds of cases but not every case could be taken to court. He dismissed allegations that the MACC had its hands tied, pointing out that there were five independent committees monitoring the body.

"It is not that easy to bring someone to court and charge him, there is a rule of law in Malaysia and evidence is needed before the case can reach that level," he said.

Another point Abu Kassim highlighted was that even if the Auditor General were to find something suspicious while carrying out his audit, he could not inform the MACC because it was illegal. Only after the report has been tabled in parliament can the MACC be informed about the discrepancy.

"There was a case where a hospital purchased medical equipment. Despite paying millions of ringgit, they did not receive the equipment and the Auditor General duly noted this down," said Abu Kassim.

"However, by the time we came to know about this case, a full nine months had already passed. By the time my investigators went to the hospital, the equipment was already there.

"What else could the MACC do?"