KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 31 – All 25 ministries performed excellently last year compared to two years before that, according to the Auditor-General’s Report 2016 Series 1. The gist of the federal government’s financial statements and financial management of the ministries/ departments/ federal statutory bodies contained in the report shows an overall improvement in the ministries’ financial management.
“In 2016, all the 25 ministries (100%) achieved a level of excellence compared to 16 (64%) and 20 (83.3%) out of 25 ministries in 2015 and of 24 in 2014 respectively,” stated the report which was tabled in Parliament today. The National Audit Department has been conducting financial management audit (accountability index) on 25 ministries and 18 federal departments annually, and on 38 federal statutory bodies every three years.
This is to gauge whether their financial management followed the law and related financial regulations. The report said the financial management performance of 18 federal departments showed an improvement, with 16 of these achieving excellence and two deemed good.
Meanwhile, the financial management of 38 federal statutory bodies showed 16 of them excelling, that of 19 rated as good and three as satisfactory. Auditing was also conducted at the Youth and Sports Department (JBS) headquarters and 15 state JBS offices and 13 Social Security Organisation (Socso) offices nationwide.
Also audited were six Malaysian overseas mission offices under the Foreign Ministry and seven federal statutory bodies’ delegation offices overseas. Surprise auditing was also conducted at 265 centres of responsibility/ federal government cost centres at the state and district levels under 20 ministries and 148 offices under the federal statutory bodies.
The auditing detected a number of cases like the stamp register, cash book and petty cash voucher book not being managed satisfactorily, surprise checks not conducted as set, and delegation of power not given to the officer holding the keys and combination number to the safe deposit box.
Besides auditing to meet the requirement of the law, the National Audit Department also carried out a special evaluation on the financial management performance of the ministries/ departments/ agencies under the control of the department heads holding Public Sector Key Posts (Jusa), involving 36 department heads.
Auditor-General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad, in the foreword of the report on the activities of the ministries and federal government departments in 2016, stated that generally, these activities were carried out in accordance with the objectives set, although there were some weaknesses.
She said among the weaknesses were work, supplies and services not done as specified, not of quality or unsuitable; delays in supply and completion of projects; improper payments; and wastage and inefficiency in managing assets and government revenue.
Madinah said these weaknesses were due to negligence in following the regulations or procedures set by the government; lack of meticulous planning of programmes, activities or projects, and setting of scopes and tender specifications; no frequent and close monitoring of the work of contractors and consultants; lack of skills in project management and lack of attention paid to the outcome or impact of a programme, activity or project.
In the meanwhile, to enable the secretary-generals of the ministries and heads of the department to take the corrective or improvement measures, Madinah said she had put forward 90 recommendations to overcome the weaknesses identified. — Bernama
