The Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should present a White Paper to the Dewan Rakyat when it reconvenes in a fortnight’s time on Oct. 21 on the initial actions and decisions taken by the Special Committee set up to scrutinize the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report.
The Special Committee was announced yesterday by the Chief Secretary Tan Sri Dr. Ali Hamsa, who will chair the special committee which will comprise the director-general of the Public Service, the Attorney-General as well as representatives from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Finance Ministry and Royal Malaysian Police.
There is widespread skepticism that the Special Committee will be able to make any difference to end the annual tale of horrors in the Auditor-General’s Reports about rampant corruption, wastage of public funds and abuses of power in the public service.
If the government is serious about wanting to stamp out corruption, waste, extravagance and abuses of power running into billions of ringgit of public funds every year, such a high-level government committee should have been formed immediately after the Auditor-General, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang submitted the 2012 Report to the government in July, and not now – only after the spate of adverse publicity in the past week following the tabling of the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report in Parliament on Oct. 1.
Do the Prime Minister and the Chief Secretary want Malaysians to believe that both of them did not read or know of the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report when they were first submitted to the government in July and were not aware of the enormity of the corruption, wastage of public funds and abuses of power contained therein until they were tabled in Parliament on Tuesday and reported extensively in the media?
With more than two months’ notice to respond to the 2012 Auditor-General’s Reports before they were tabled in Parliament, Malaysians expect a more commensurate and appropriate response from a government which had boasted of a Government Transformation Programme, and not to wait until “the shit hits the fan”.
In the White Paper to Parliament when it reconvenes in a fortnight’s time, the Prime Minister should not only enumerate concrete measures which will end the “annual tale of horrors” in the Auditor-General’s Reports, but also the disciplinary actions which have been taken by all the Ministries against their staff for the malpractices and breaches of government general orders causing unacceptable losses of public funds.