Rules in place, but errant civil servants not punished

Event though the problems have been highlighted in his report, Auditor-General Ambrin Buang says department heads are sometimes lax in taking disciplinary action against errant civil servants.

There already are rules in place to punish civil servants, but enforcement is lacking, Ambrin told a forum last night.

"(Punitive) action cannot be taken as long as department heads do not act. And we wonder why they are not acting.

"Perhaps the department head does not view the matter seriously. Perhaps he takes pity on his officers; that the officers did well in other areas and only overlooked in this one," Ambrin said.

Ambrin was speaking to some 100 students at Universiti Malaya's Faculty of Economics and Administration, alongside two academicians, Lee Hwok Aun and Muhammad Asri Mohd Ali.

He said this in answer to a question from the moderator on whether a special committee had been set up to scrutinise his report, since doubts have been raised about the veracity of the audit report.

Ambrin dismissed this contention and explained that the committee, chaired by the chief secretary to the government, Ali Hamsa, was set up to ensure follow-up action is taken on the audit report and to hold the departmental director-generals accountable on this.

He added that disciplinary action is appropriate when irregularities occur, even if without criminal intent, it these incur losses to the government.

Public wants fast, firm action

Penalties include written warnings that would delay salary increments, a delay in promotion, the imposition of a surcharge or even dismissal from service.

In cases where there is believed to be criminal intent, such as corruption, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) would investigate and refer the findings to the attorney-general.

"The public demands action. They want faster action and they want firmer action... It must hurt. Only then will they (civil servants) feel it.

"When we take action, others will watch. Only then it would count. That person responsible would have lost his promotion or have his salary adjustment delayed, and it becomes a topic of conversation," Ambrin added.

During the forum, he was asked by the moderator, as well as by the students, about the total losses due to irregularities based on his audit, as well as to comment on Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming's estimate that RM6.5 billion had been lost.

‘We don't quantify cost of leakages'

Ambrin said he does not know the total figure, as the scope of his work is only to ensure compliance with financial rules, and value-for-money in government expenditure.

"How do they get these figures? I don't know. When we do these audits, we don't quantify on how much the leakages cost. No, it is not our work.

"We wouldn't dare anyway because we are worried about making mistakes," he said.

Despite the irregularities highlighted, Ambrin told the students that most of these were due to non-compliance with Treasury rules as a result of caused by ignorance.

Even then, while stressing that he was not ruling out graft, Ambrin said compliance with the rules have actually improved over the years.

He lamented that the media choose to focus only on the irregularities and repeatedly urged the students to read the original report to get a fairer picture.

"For example, on Khazanah's performance, we reported that it has done well. But if the people, for whatever reason, do not want to accept that, then that is a different issue," he said.

On top of that, Ambrin added, the media sometimes misreported on his findings and does not entertain his department's requests for corrections.

To another question from the floor, he said he felt that the errors were not serious enough to warrant legal action and that department assumed this was done without malice.

However, the requests for corrections are posted on the National Audit Department's website so that members of the public can draw their own conclusions on this, Ambrin added.