Wednesday September 12, 2007
Go through A-G’s report in detail, Cabinet ministers told
KUCHING: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has directed all Cabinet ministers to go through the Auditor-General’s report in detail and to fully explain anything that is questionable.
He said the financial irregularities highlighted by the A-G were a matter of concern.
“In the last Cabinet meeting before I went overseas, I directed all the ministers to scrutinise the report. They should ensure that any question raised in the audit is given a full explanation,” he said when asked to comment on the report yesterday.
The A-G’s report outlined a number of cases involving mismanagement of public funds, such as a ministry paying RM224 for a RM40 set of screwdrivers and RM10,700 for 10 technical books with a market price of RM417.
Other irregularities included shelling out RM5,700 for a RM50 carjack, RM8,254 for a digital camera that costs RM2,990 and RM1,146 for a set of technical pens with a market price of RM160.
“I hope the relevant parties will explain how this happened,” Abdullah told a press conference here.
In Putrajaya, ACA director-general Datuk Ahmad Said Hamdan said his men were studying the A-G’s report.
“We are looking at all ministries and agencies mentioned in the report,” he said after the prize presentation by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz for a pre-university debating contest on anti-corruption.
Nazri also told reporters that ministers and secretaries-general whose ministries and agencies had been implicated by the A-G might be interviewed by the ACA.
“The ACA can see anybody, regardless of whether they are clerks, secretaries-general or ministers.
“There must be something wrong if the same issue keeps cropping up every year,” he said, adding that the ACA should be given time to study the report to get to the bottom of the matter.
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