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. Continue reading “AG’s exposes of fund mismanagement – “chicken-feed” compared to RM4.6 billion PKFZ bailout scandal”