In his budget speech, Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said raising the level of performance of the civil service is critical in sustaining the competitiveness of the nation, especially in the context of globalization. He said it is timely for best practices and the culture of high performance to be adopted in the civil service to drive further improvements in performance.
However, the 2006 Auditor-General’s Report on the third full year of the Abdullah premiership with its litany of waste and abuse of public funds running into tens and hundreds of million of ringgit shows that far from an improvement, there is probably a worsening, in public service culture — with Parliament being reminded constantly with the disgraceful leakage despite RM200 million renovation, with a small waterfall at the media room yesterday.
Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said on Sunday that ministries must answer for the instances of mismanagement disclosed in the Auditor-General’s Report and the Second Finance Minister, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop ordered all departments in the Treasury to check cases highlighted in the Auditor-General’s Report.
One Minister after another is trying to rebut he strictures contained in the Auditor-General’s report, like the payment of RM224 for a RM32 set of screwdrivers, paying RM1,146 for a set of pens costing RM 160, paying RM5,700 for a car jack worth RMN50, the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) paying RM5.59 million in advance to 4,183 students who did not apply for a loan and other horror stories.
All the reactions by Ministers are not only locking the stable door after the horses have bolted, but empty public posturings — including that of Najib as he is also Defence Minister who has to fully explain the largest single case of misuse of funds in the 2006 Auditor-General’s Report — the RM6.75 billion scandal of six Offshore Patrol Vessels (OPV) that have either not been delivered or not operational and the increase of their contract price twice from RM4.9 billion to RM6.75 billion or 38 percent.
In actual fact, the 2006 Auditor-General’s Report was completed on 28th June 2007 and would have been submitted to the government shortly after.
Why are Cabinet Ministers only beginning to wake up now to the gross mismanagement, waste and abuse of public funds more than two months of the completion of the Auditor-General’s Report?
Would the Ministers reacted to these gross mismanagement of public funds if no publicity had been given to the Auditor-General’s Report?
Were all the Ministers aware of and had approved the explanations which the various government departments had given, some most ridiculous and most unacceptable, to the strictures of the Auditor-General’s Report and which had been tabled in the House?
Is every Minister prepared to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to personally assume responsibility for the mismanagement of public funds highlighted in the Auditor-General’s Report?
The proposal announced by the Prime Minister that Secretaries-General of ministries and Heads of Services will be offered three-year contract and their performance rewarded based on KPIs sound good on paper, but from the abysmal failure of the government to “walk the talk” of its commitment to efficiency, excellence and integrity in the past four years, there is little confidence that any major changes in civil service performance, accountability and integrity would ensue.
The reason is very simple — if the Cabinet can be so irresponsible and unaccountable as to approve a RM4.6 billion bailout of the Port Klang Free Zone scandal, without the former Transport Minister Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik and the present Finance Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy having to assume any responsibility although both of them had unlawfully without Cabinet authority and Treasury approval given government guarantee for RM4.6 billion bonds issued by Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd — the beneficiary of the exorbitant land transaction as well as turnkey contractor — and causing the Cabinet recently to give retrospective approval for the “unlawful government guarantee”, the mismanagement of millions or tens of millions of ringgit by public officials in the various ministries were mere “chicken-feed”!
How could any action be taken against errant public officials when Ministers enjoy a culture of impunity for their crimes and misdeamnours?
If Abdullah wants to send a clear message that there should be no more hanky-panky with public funds in government, then charge and prosecute Liong Sik and Kong Choy in court for their abuses of power in forcing the government to bailout the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal with their unauthorized and illegal issue of implicit government guarantee for RM4.6 billion bonds without Cabinet authority and Treasury approval.
Otherwise, the horror stories of abuse and mismanagement of public funds running into tens and hundreds of millions of ringgit in the Auditor-General’s Report will continue to be an annual national shame and tragedy.
(Speech 2 on 2008 Budget in Dewan Rakyat on September 11, 2007)