AUDIT REPORT, NOTHING HAS CHANGED

WASTEFUL.....Without investigations against the officials in government departments who overspend their allocated budgets or indulge in wasteful spending, nothing would change.

By : CHARLES SANTIAGO

IT HAS always been a disaster for the government. The report card on the government’s financial management, the Auditor-General’s report, is again stinging on the government’s wasteful spending.

There are more embarrassing revelations in this year’s Auditor-General’s report as the country heads towards what has been described as the most-closely fought general election ever.

In comparison, the report gave the thumbs up to the four Pakatan Rakyat-controlled states for its good fiscal management, resulting in improved revenues.

But in direct contrast, the man digging through government’s books says there are countless problems including a more than three-billion ringgit cost overrun on a rail project in northern Malaysia as well as government departments spending way over the going rate for items including torch lights and bill boards.

The highly criticised double tracking rail project is also seriously behind schedule.

This year, the report revealed problems like a customs official who went on a wild shopping spree spending more than one million ringgit without authorisation and the government spending more than three million ringgit to set up just six billboards in Indonesia.

And it criticised a government-backed venture to open Malaysian restaurants in London and Tokyo, which flopped, costing the government RM14 million.

This goes against the government’s talks of being responsible with the peoples’ money. And clearly, its transformation program which is actually to ensure there is increased accountability and transparency particularly in the civil service, given the fact there has been an increase in concern over the level of corruption, abuse and all the leakages have not really worked either.

If it had, more than RM400,000 worth of cattle and goat semen will not remain unused as of the end of last year. And the accumulated federal government-guaranteed loans would not have doubled in four years, standing at a whopping cost of RM115 billion. A large number of businesses which secured these loans are government-linked companies.

Clearly nothing has changed in Malaysia even though Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak keeps reminding us that his government is committed to cleaning up a system which favours and thrives on crony-connections, is rife with rampant corruption and saddled with wasteful spending amounting to billions of ringgit in tax-payers money.

Even Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s forced resignation from the cabinet has very little impact in pressurising the government to buck up. She was forced to quit in relation to more than RM240 million loan the government made to her family’s cattle-rearing business.

The auditor general found that much of that money got used for buying high end condominiums and expensive holidays instead of on the cows.

What transformation plan?

The report blames the fact that the government awarded contracts after brokering a deal directly with the company instead of through open tender. This against goes against the very grains of Najib’s Government Transformation Plan and Economic Transformation Plan, which he said are crucial in achieving Malaysia’s aim of becoming a fully developed country by 2020.

Essentially the two-pronged plans were supposed to weed out graft and ensure a transparent process when it comes to projects awarded by the government. And yet the unnecessary expenses incurred by government departments and the practice of awarding lucrative projects to crony companies persist.

But most essentially what action has the government or the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission taken to investigate the abuse of power? The answer is none. The customs officer who chalked up a huge bill simply threw in the towel. No action was taken on him.

And Shahrizat’s husband was charged in court earlier this year following the relentless pursuit for justice by PKR’s Rafizi Ramli.

Without investigations against the officials in government departments who overspend their allocated budgets or indulge in wasteful spending, nothing would change.

The reforms Najib goes around town talking about would come to a naught and just be another political ploy to try and win the next general election.

And yes, we could be looking at another Auditor-General’s report which would be much of the same.