But Just Who are You Kidding?

Tan Sri Amrin Buang, The Auditor-General

The Head Honcho of the Malaysian Public Services Department (JPA)says all ministry secretaries-general and directors-general will be made accountable for the abuses, negligence, mismanagement and excesses conducted by and within their respective ministries and departments. What a joke!

Who is he kidding?

We all know finger pointing will commence and the most junior officers down the pecking order will be made to pay after a laborious witch-hunt. I do not believe the rakyat's money will ever be recovered. It will just be a rap on the knuckles and the 'big buffons' will once again escaped this "wool over the eyes" dragnet.

Director-General of Public Services Tan Sri Ismail Adam said all those implicated in the 2008 Auditor-General’s Report will be penalised.

Let us look at some of the excesses mentioned in the 2008 Auditor-General's Report quoted by Ismail.

"For example, if the actual cost of the item is only RM1 but the ministry paid RM600 for it, then the individual who approved it will have to repay the ministry or Treasury RM599." Since most are officer recommendations and committee approvals by representatives from even the Treasury itself sitting on these interdepartmental approving committees, how is blame going to be equitably apportioned?

Fancy this.

Among the observations of this year’s A-G’s report which raised eyebrows is Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi Mara Balik Pulau’s purchase of two laptops for RM42,320 each, when the market price is only between RM5,350 and RM6,500.

Ismail said that at times it may be hard to put the blame of questionable purchases on one individual who may claim he was only following orders.

"But if we have enough evidence, he will have to pay back the money as he put the ministry or department at a financial disadvantage," he said. [Another interesting loophole has been identified.]

He said the repayment could be deducted from their salaries or from their gratuity or even pension.

Ismail said that since 2008, the A-G’s report had become part of the criterion of Key Performance Index (KPI) for all 38 secretaries-general and their directors-general.

"If their ministry or department is mentioned unfavourably in the A-G’s report, then it will affect their overall performance score of the KSU (secretaries-general) or D-G and can affect promotions and increments," he said.

"Even if the mistake is done by the despatch boy, as the heads (of the ministry or department), the buck stops with them and they must be held accountable."

He said such actions were taken against several officials last year following the 2007 A-G’s report, where they ended up being "pulled" or in layman’s terms "cold-storaged" or passed over for promotion.

Ismail, however, declined to pinpoint the individuals, saying it was sufficient that those in the service knew who they were.

"But the public must also know that we are not sitting idly by when reports of mismanagement of public money are exposed," he said, adding that just like last year, anti-corruption investigators will be brought in to probe all ministries and departments implicated in the 2008 A-G’s report.

He also said none of them had been or would be transferred as has been the public perception.

"We keep them there and rehabilitate them if we can, otherwise you are only transplanting the problem," he said.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a statement that, as a matter of course, they go through the A-G’s report thoroughly to identify elements of corruption, misappropriation or abuse of power in the management of public funds, and appropriate action is taken against those responsible.

MACC, why are we always waiting?