KUALA LUMPUR: Going forward, debates on the Auditor-General’s reports will be “religiously practised” in the Dewan Rakyat each time the national audit statement is tabled, says Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul.
Parliament debated the Auditor-General’s Report 2021 Series 2 in June, a first for the House.
However, the motion to debate the report was met with resistance from the Opposition bloc, which walked out of chambers, only returning after the debate had concluded.
Despite this, the Speaker said, “That will be religiously followed every year; I’ll make sure. At least two reports, the AG and Suhakam reports, will be debated,” he said, referring to the annual report from the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.
“Once they are debated, the relevant agencies will have to take action; the anti-corruption and enforcement agencies will have to take action,” he said.
“In previous years, there was no debate, even if the report was laid on the table. Agencies would say Parliament felt everything was okay.”
Regarding the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Johari said it is “very active now”.
When asked if calls to make PAC proceedings public would be heeded, Johari said there was no need to do so as reports on the cases taken up by the parliamentary select committee are always available for public viewing and cover enough ground, including transcripts of proceedings.
“The PAC will hold meetings and will call all relevant agencies. After that, they will reach a decision and the report is prepared and then laid on the table,” he said, referring to the MPs’ table in the Dewan Rakyat.
Johari said there is “nothing to hide” once the report is tabled in the House.
“To me, substance is more important than form. The ones who appear before the PAC are government officers and they serve the government of the day, so sometimes, to put them in a situation where they will have to appear publicly, to me, it is no good.
“The most important thing is the report, not how they (witnesses) appear in proceedings. I don’t think the proceedings should be made public but the report, yes. I think the report is more important than the proceedings,” he said.
