Najib should present White Paper to Dewan Rakyat on Auditor-General’s report, says Kit Siang

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak should present a White Paper to the Dewan Rakyat on decisions and actions taken by a special committee to scrutinise the recently unveiled Auditor-General's report for last year, said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang (pic).

Lim said there is widespread skepticism that the committee would make any difference to end the "annual tale of horrors" in the report which highlighted 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 - after the spate of adverse publicity in the past week," Lim said in a statement today.

He said that with more than two months to respond to the 2012 Auditor-General Report before it was tabled in Parliament, Malaysians expect a more commensurate and appropriate response from a government which boasted of a Government Transformation Programme (GTP), and not to wait until “the shit hits the fan”.

The committee was announced yesterday by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa, who will also chair it.

It also comprises the director-general of the Public Service, the Attorney-General as well as representatives from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the Finance Ministry and the Royal Malaysian Police.

The committee is tasked to follow-up on the report, which includes taking stern action against those involved in any misappropriation in the ministries' and agencies' financial administration as revealed in the report.

"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 Report when they were first submitted to the government in July?

“Were they 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?" he said.

Lim said Najib should not only enumerate concrete measures to end the “annual tale of horrors”, 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. - October 6, 2013.