YOURSAY | PN fears their dirty linen washed in public

 

YOURSAY | ‘If you dare spend the money, you must be prepared to be held accountable.’

Chaos in Parliament as PN MPs oppose debate on 2021 national audit report

Coward: Perikatan Nasional (PN) appears worried that their dirty linen will get washed in public. This is understandable, particularly as we are so near to state elections. In the government’s defence, they did not actually choose the timing.

If you dare spend the money, you must be prepared to be held accountable. Correction, by taking office you agree to be the trustee of the money and are authorised to spend the money. In return, we want accountability, so we will ask you why you spent the money that way. If you don’t want to take the question, don’t take the job.

It, therefore, begs the question, what are they (PN) afraid of? If there is no smoke, there is no fire. No doubt, government will try to score points, however, if you can justify your action, you go in heads on and rebut their argument.

The electorate can see through the government’s tactics and back you even if they do not agree with your decision, as long as your decision is a reasonable one.

Karnak: Firstly, I don’t understand why something so fundamentally important to government accountability has never been discussed in Parliament.

Secondly, to say a convention is binding till eternity when it is wrong or wrong-headed is the height of stupidity. It means ossified rules, regulations, and conventions must be followed even if they do not make sense or are contrary to good sense.

That being said, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If Pakatan Harapan wants to discuss the Auditor-General’s Report for 2021, then it must allow such a discussion for similar reports for periods when it is in government too.

Fourth, some may argue that some “strange” expenditures are for expediency, and for expenses that cannot make sense to a right-minded person - but which are “necessary” - to place too much scrutiny is not good, they say.

To which I say, if we cannot be a nation of laws in the way government agencies conduct themselves, then there should be no expectation that the public follow these same laws.

There will be some that say that debating the report at this time when we are on the verge of holding state elections is merely political theatre. The timing of the debate does not detract from the fact that such a debate is, indeed, still important for the reasons stated above.

To say that the timing is bad has some merit only if we agree that the administration is abusing the truth for political ends.

To which I say, facts are facts; political parties may wish to “spin” these facts into their own narrative but that is a lesser evil, to my mind, than not discussing these facts. Some may again say that facts without context are no different from a half-truth.

Well, yes. Therefore, debate these facts, and both sides should be given the opportunity to contextualise these facts - the point being, these facts or findings, should be discussed.

So, debate the report. There should be no hiding.

George Lourdesamy: Shocking behaviour by the PN opposition. There is nothing in the Constitution or Standing Orders to say that the AG’s Report cannot be debated in the House of Representatives.

It is the prerogative of the government to move a motion to debate the report after it is laid before the House. Conventions are not binding where it involves the public interest. Why is PN afraid of debating the report? Why fear transparency, accountability, and oversight?

The role of Parliament is to scrutinise, question, and have oversight of the government’s operations and expenditure. Why must that role be limited to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) whose deliberations are held on camera?

Ultimately, it is the House that determines and regulates its own rules or procedure. The PAC which is a standing committee of the House cannot override the powers of the House to debate the report.

Siva1967: Standing order or the Constitution, when findings of the AG’s Report have indicated some weaknesses as well as some extraordinary findings that have caused leakages in the ministries and government agencies, it should be debated and brought to light.

If the PN MPs, who incidentally were the government and office bearers at that material time, have nothing to hide, why use technicalities of the law to oppose it? If they have nothing to hide, then they should welcome it.

Furthermore, if by convention this was never the practice, maybe that was why for years and years there were so many findings and misdemeanors which have cost the government millions if not billions, and no one was sacked or action taken to be accountable for this mismanagement.

Year in and year out, many anomalies were highlighted in the AG’s Report and no prime minister or the cabinet did anything to correct them. The reports are prepared for a reason, so that improvements can be made and loopholes can be plugged. But no, no one took responsibility and now when the Madani administration wants to debate it, there is defiance and chaos.

There is a saying, “One who is loud is not necessarily right”.

FairMind: I’m surprised the national audit reports have never been debated before in Parliament. Now, I understand why the perpetrators of the misdeeds in the audit report are so brave to carry on their misdeeds year after year as if nothing happens.

MPs can debate anything which concerns the nation. Why the exception here? The opposition MPs from PN can’t debate the national audit report which covers the loss and misuse of money to the nation.

I remember, when DAP was the opposition, they were always eager to raise matters from these audit reports. It may well be in the past the audit reports were never debated.

Now we have a new and responsible unity government, why can’t we deviate from past wrongs and start the debate? - Mkini