KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will call up the Finance Ministry on Nov 30 concerning the Auditor-General's Report 2022 findings on the Langkawi Development Authority’s (Lada) management of real estate projects.
PAC chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin said the committee will focus on several criteria in its proceedings, namely misappropriation of funds, abuse of power, wastage and negligence.
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“PAC will make announcements from time to time on the other topics of its proceedings,” she said at a press conference in Parliament on Wednesday (Nov 22).
She added that the committee had arranged its schedule until December.
According to the report, Lada failed to collect the overdue lease revenue for two projects: RM3.19mil from the St Regis Hotel Development since 2018, and RM8.3mil from the Tok Senik village project since 2003.
The report, tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday, reported more than RM600mil in losses of public funds from 16 performance audits conducted on 14 ministries involving RM208.882bil.
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According to the report, 13 performance audits amounting to RM207.352bil were in the activities or programmes category, one amounting to RM316mil in the projects category, and two audit activities amounting to RM1.214bil involving ICT systems.
The ministries involved in the performance audits were: Rural and Regional Development; Home; Agriculture and Food Security; Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change; Works; Local Government Development; Transport; Health; Plantations and Commodities; Investment, Trade and Industry; Education; Finance; Youth and Sports; and Human Resources.
The report showed 11 cases failed to meet the objectives of the project or programme, while the performance level of three could not be ascertained.
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Only two of the 16 cases met their objectives.
There were six cases that resulted in losses totalling RM681.71mil.
This involved the Padi Planting Programme, management of Lada real estate development, firearms management and surveillance programme, conservation of marine protected areas programme, a programme to encourage investments into the manufacturing sector, and the Safe City Programme.
There are three cases involving wastage of public funds totalling RM21.35mil, which included the Integrated Foreign Workers Management system (ePPAx) and the Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS), as well as the programme to empower the capacity, capabilities and competitiveness of the construction industry.
The Audit Department issued 55 recommendations to the audited entities.
Among them were to conduct thorough research on project proposals before approval; to step up surveillance to ensure the projects go on as scheduled; and for department heads to outline the criteria and mechanisms to evaluate a project’s efficacy at every implementation stage.
