Scandals and boggles in Auditor-General's report
Oct 6, 05
Transparency International (Malaysian chapter) president Param Cumaraswamy is not a happy man.
This is because he has stumbled upon some mind-boggling figures and scandalous revelations in the 2004 Auditor Generals report.
Among others, he was puzzled as to how the Treasury stood as guarantor for loans amounting to RM47.5 billion taken by nine government linked companies without sufficient supervision on how the money was to be spent and repaid.
He also noted a failed RM32 million computerisation project undertaken by the Social Security Organisation (Socso). According to him, this was nothing short of being scandalous. The concerned TI president also wondered if these
were just the tip of the iceberg.
How many other departments and agencies who have undertaken such projects at such high costs with such failures will have to be investigated, he said.
This is where, Param said, the members of Parliament come in.
He called on them to focus on the report as they owe it to their constituents to get to the bottom of the matter.
The MPs owe it to the electorate to spare no efforts and allocate extra time over the debate on the budget, if necessary, to debate this report, he said.
On the failure of the Entrepreneur and Co-operative Development Ministry and the Federal Territories Ministry to submit their accounts to the AG, he said it reflected the lackadaisical attitude of the leadership in these ministries.
All ministries are required to submit their accounts by December 2004.
Meanwhile, Param also commended the AG for a valuable and independent report.
Councillors
rapped Commenting on another matter, the TI Malaysia president slammed councillors who were irked by the stinging criticism of Deputy Minister in the Prime Ministers Department M Kayveas.
Over the weekend, the deputy minister had sent temperatures soaring in certain quarters when he likened local councils to secret societies.
In return, several councillors attacked Kayveas for allegedly making sweeping statements and unfair generalisations.
These officials (from local authorities) must remember that it is not what they assert on how well they perform which matters,said Param.
There have been reports of shortcomings, mismanagement, wastage of funds on overseas junkets under the pretext of study tours, ill considered approvals for deforestations
in local townships resulting in calls for accountability and transparency from these authorities, he said.
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