INTERVIEW WITH THE NEWS STRAITS TIMES
QUESTION 1
Your Department conducts audit every year. How would you know the matters/problems raised
are addressed?
COMMENT
All the issues raised in the previous Audit Report will be updated and the latest position reported
in the current year’s report.
QUESTION 2
During your audit checks, you uncover many unsavory situations – local authorities giving away
contracts for over 20 years and blatant wastage of funds. How can we effectively curb this?
COMMENT
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It is the responsibilities of the heads of department/agency to address
weaknesses/irregularities in financial management. They should strengthen their internal
controls and ensure that all rules and procedures on financial management being
complied. As an Auditor General, I can recommend surcharge be taken against the
wrongdoers as provided under Section 18 of Financial Procedure Act, 1957.
One of the factors for non compliance of rules and regulations in financial management is
due to lack of training/knowledge of the officers involved and poor supervisions by their
superior. Thus, my department can help conduct training for them.
Heads of the departments/agencies must continuously monitor the work of their
subordinates through regular meetings of Jawatankuasa Pengurusan Kewangan dan
Akaun and must not hesitate to give written warnings to those who are negligent.
QUESTION 3
Some feel the Audit Department doesn’t really have the powers because all you can do is to
uncover the “mess”. Some of the wrongdoers often get away scott-free. What can you do to
ensure that action is taken against the wrongdoers?
COMMENT
I agree that Auditor General is not given the power to take legal action against the wrongdoers.
However, as I mentioned earlier, I can refer the matter to the Treasury for surcharge action
against them. At the same time, I can advise the Public Accounts Committee to call upon the
respective Controlling Officers to provide the necessary explanations. For those issues relating to
fraud, I do refer to Anti Corruption Agency for their investigation.
QUESTION 4
Does the auditee get back to you on the problems raised? Do they always furnish you with
reports and the improvements carried out once you point them out? What is the percentage?
COMMENT
Generally, most auditees had replied to our audit queries and audit observations. However, not
every issue is being addressed and they were not replied within the specific time, even though
according to the Treasury Instructions 306, all audit queries must be replied within 30 days. The
Treasury and the respective State Financial Officers do also monitor the response from the
departments/agencies concerned.
QUESTION 5
Are you agreeable that cases unearthed by your department should be directed to the Anti
Corruption Agency?
COMMENT
Not all the issues raised by my department contain elements of fraud or malpractices that need
further investigation by the Anti Corruption Agency. Only audit observations that contain issues
related to fraud will be extended to the Anti Corruption Agency.
QUESTION 6
You have raised many issues in this year’s report – money wasted in many state, white elephant
abound, 40 years to process a land application etc. The fact that we get such reports every year
clearly shows the lack of accountability on the part of the auditee. Your views.
COMMENT
In carrying out auditing, we focus on 3 aspects i.e. planning, implementation and monitoring on
the activities. Generally, the departments/agencies had planned well in the implementation of
activities. It is mainly in the implementation and monitoring stage that the officers had failed to
comply with rules and regulations in carrying out their duties. Therefore, generally, the lack of
accountability relate to the failure in the implementation and monitoring stage. I believe that it is
incumbent for all controlling officers to ensure that corrective actions are effectively taken and
their officers and staffs are adequately trained to handle their task. Leadership is important.
Because of staff changes, this may affect continuity of actions at the departmental/agencies level
and it is the responsibility of controlling officers to ensure this continuity of action.
QUESTION 7
Which audit made you really angry and how can the situation be corrected?
COMMENT
The issue of being angry does not arise. My concern is how serious auditees respond to my
findings and recommendations. This can be measured in terms of real improvement made and
that mistakes are not repeated. So every year we monitor whether there is real progress. For
serious cases, I do not hesitate to draw the attention of the Ministers or MB’s / Chief Ministers
responsible.
QUESTION 8
Do you think there aren’t sufficient laws to penalize the wrongdoers? What do you suggest?
COMMENT
Generally, the government has sufficient laws and regulations enabling the departments/agencies
to take actions against those wrongdoers. Among others, Government had issued Financial
Procedure Act 1957, Treasury Instructions, Treasury Circulars and General Orders. To ensure
that all the laws and regulations are adhered to, I suggest that the heads of department/agency
ensure that the element SIKAP exists in his/her department. SIKAP means :
S- SUPERVISION – close supervision given to the subordinates.
I – INTEREST – every officer must have interest in their work.
K – KNOWLEDGE – every officer must have sufficient knowledge in their field of work.
A- ATTITUDE – every officer must have the right attitude in performing their duties. A culture
that values honesty, trustworthy and efficiency must be instilled.
P- PROCEDURES - proper procedures should be established for each activity and monitored to
ensure that they are complied with.
For serious cases, I hope those people who are found to be directly negligent in their work that
concern money should not be “rewarded” by giving them excellent services certificate, very high
marks in their annual performance evaluations report as well as awards and titles.
QUESTION 9
Do you think state governments, ministries, government departments and agencies and local
councils be listed in an Accountability Index so that the public would have a perception of their
performance and accountability?
COMMENT
I am working towards that because I think not only will it contribute towards fulfilling
government aspirations with respect to accountability and integrity of government department
and agencies, but will also induce department heads to take corrective actions expeditiously.
Besides, it will motivate them to sustain consistency in good financial management for their
good image.
QUESTION 10
What do you lack? How can the function of the Audit Department be enhanced to give it more
bite?
COMMENT
Presently there are nearly 500 subsidiaries of statutory bodies, both Federal and state which my
department has recently been mandated to audit. My department obviously needs to be beefed up
in terms of personel if we have to carry out this task effectively. Presently we are able to do it on
a random basis, but it will be better to audit the whole lot of them.
QUESTION 11
Are your officers competent enough to detect fraud, particularly which involves IT?
COMMENT
I think, we need to have develop new knowledge and skills on forensic auditing of activities.
Since this is a new area of auditing, this year, I have sent my officers to attend courses in
forensic auditing.
Currently, a number of public services are already made available through the web-based
delivery channels. Large amounts of public funds have been invested in these new technologies.
Presently, my officers have also been involved in system development in the auditee entity to
ensure that proper controls that can curb any act of fraud/malpractices are embedded in the
system. It will also give the auditors the opportunity to highlight any inadequacies before any
system is implemented. Anyway, there is still a need to upgrade the skill and knowledge in ICT
auditing as well as re-engineer the audit methodology and techniques to accommodate changes
under the ICT environment.
QUESTION 12
How can your department complement the National Integrity Plan to provide a better delivery
system?
COMMENT
In this context, my role is to ensure that resources of audited entities are being utilized with
regard to value for money by minimizing the cost of resources used, ensuring quality of goods
and services delivered and also fulfilling programme/activity objectives and targets. This can be
done through the audit especially performance auditing on selected programme/activity each
year.
I believe in continuous improvements of the delivery system which require people of integrity at
all levels. It is just not enough to improve their knowledge and skills. Ethics and values are
equally important. By monitoring the adequacy of internal control systems and strategies of any
ministry/department/agencies, we can help avoid frauds and mismanagement of resources. For
project and activity audited, we do pay attention to outcomes and not just output. This way we
can highlight incidences of wastage or extravagances in government expenditure.