Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has ordered his cabinet members to go through the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report with their respective ministries and act on its recommendations.
Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Anwar said he wanted the ministers to ensure all issues highlighted in the report would not be repeated, especially when involving leakages of public funds.
“We had a lengthy discussion (in the cabinet meeting) about the Auditor-General’s Report for 2021.
“We should take a lesson from this report, so I have asked all ministers to bring it to their respective post-cabinet meetings and go through every issue and recommendation about expenditure, leakages, and things that were not done according to rules and procedures.
“All these have been mentioned in detail and would be tabled in the upcoming Parliament sitting. But for now, I have asked all ministers to seriously look into these issues so that we won’t repeat them.
“Because sometimes, when Auditor-General’s Reports made their recommendations, the same issues continued to persist year after year,” he said at the press conference.
Anwar said the government will not reveal the contents of the report at this juncture as they are giving the opportunity to the agencies involved to respond to the findings by the Auditor-General’s Department.
According to the prime minister, he wants every ministry to look at all criticisms against them and remind public servants they have the duty to keep their integrity intact.
Reminder for public servants to speak up
Meanwhile, on his call for public servants to act as a check and balance in preventing corruption and wastage, Anwar elaborated today that it was aimed at eradicating the sense of fear among civil servants from speaking up against wrongdoings.
However, he said, there are mechanisms for them to air their criticisms properly to their superiors and ministers.
“(Of course) not by making statements via RTM. We have the mechanism to criticise.
“We have daily meetings. We also have post-cabinet meetings where we can air our views. If one thinks it can be insulting, then the person can do it by meeting in person. But they should say it.
“Like what I always told the Chief Secretary to the Government, he should tell me if he feels my instructions are not according to procedures.
“Then only we can work as a team. And then civil servants also have to accept it when we have to reprimand them whenever they do something wrong. If we do not have this culture, then there will always be a sense of fear and they will keep quiet whenever they see something is wrong.”
Meanwhile, during the presser, Anwar said the cabinet also recommends MACC get involved with the Global Operational Network of Anti-Corruption Law Enforcement Authorities, or Globe Network, which is a platform under the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
He said this was aimed at strengthening the anti-graft agency's operations, but did not elaborate further. - Mkini
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