Yes KDN, shoot Bukit Aman first, talk later

Well done, Home Ministry, for firing at the can of worms in Bukit Aman.

When Bukit Aman submits its budget, does it not make sufficient provision for its various activities?

If so, then how is it that there is a reported “lack of funds in police departments, which had forced officers to foot fuel and repair bills out of their own pockets due to inadequate patrol cars”?

This seems to be a problem also in the Civil Defence which is also under the Home Ministry.

It would be interesting to know whether the officers forced “to foot fuel and repair bills out of their own pockets due to inadequate patrol cars” affects only the non-gazetted officers or also the gazetted officers?

This opening of the can of worms in the police brings into question the proper management and disbursement of funds given to each state HQ and each district HQ.

Isn’t there anybody charged with the duty to ensure that funds are used for the purpose they are provided for?

It’s unbelievable that the treasury does not provide sufficient funds for the fuel and repair bills of police vehicles. Are the funds being used to pay for overpriced spares and maintenance costs?

Has Spano Sdn Bhd, the company charged with providing maintenance services for government vehicles, been audited to ensure it is not overcharging or providing poor quality services so that vehicles are in the workshop more often than they should be? What is the Home Ministry’s own role after having given the money to the State police HQ’s? Is there no system in place to make spot checks to ensure funds are being properly used, for the proper purposes?

If the report about policemen having to use their own pocket money to buy petrol and pay for repairs is true, then this should have been discovered by the Home Ministry as soon as it began happening and not as Marwan says “the ministry was not aware of such happenings”. Such an answer is unacceptable as it means to say there is no oversight by the ministry as to how the money it has given the departments and agencies under it is utilized.

The way public money is being treated with disdain is inexcusable. We can’t be having so many stupid and careless civil servants around in this country. Or is it “pantang” to check on how the civil servants are spending the money?

* Ravinder Singh reads The Malaysian Insider.