(Petaling Jaya, Tuesday): DAP urges Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to arm both the Auditor-General and PAC with punitive powers to check the alarming decline in standards of public accountability, transparency and integrity in government departments. The exposes of misuse or mismanagement of public funds outlined in the Auditor-General 2006 report has never failed to shock Malaysians even though this has become an annual ritual of shame. 

The litany of sad cases of abuse of public trust and cheating the public ranges from the small such as the National Youth Skills Institute(NYSI) buying 2 units of two-tonne car jack for RM 5,471 per unit when the market price is only RM 50 per unit; to the huge expected loss of RM 6.75 billion in the Defence Ministry following the purchase of 6 off-shore naval patrol vessels(OPVs) that were either delivered but not operational(2) or still not delivered (4). 

The Youth and Sports Ministry was criticized when the NYSI paid RM 8.39 million more than the market price in 2002 for the purchase of 13 items for the National Youth Skills Institutes (NYSI) programme, such as :-

·      146 sets of screwdrivers bought for RM 224 per set when the market price is only RM 40 per set;

·      82 sets of Staedler Mars technical pens bought for RM 225 per set when the market price is only RM 120 per set;

·      90 sets of Faber Castell technical pens bought for RM 1,147 per set when the market price is RM 160 per set;

·      17 sets of technical books consisting of 10 titles priced at RM10,700 per set when the market price is only RM 417 per set;

·      5 units of 3.1 megapixel digital camera that was bought for RM8,254 per unit when the market price was only RM 2,990 per unit.

·      650 sets of plastic vases bought at RM 42.80 per set when the market price is only RM 5.20 per set:

·      3 sets of settee bought between RM 8,250-RM9.075 per set when the market price is only RM 1,500 per set;

·      two tower cranes bought for RM 5.72 million when the market price is only RM 2.98 million

·      60 used cars bought at a price of RM 4.24 million when the market price is only RM 2.8 million an excess of RM 1.44 million;

·      152 desktop computer packages bought for RM 4.5 million when the market price is only RM 1.4 million, an excess of RM 3.1 million;

·      420 sets of cement mortar boards bought at RM 1,027 per set when the market price is only RM 150 per set;

·      3 cabins bought for RM 141,900 per cabin when the market price is only RM 20,000 per cabin;  and

·      2 units of two-tonne car jack bought for RM 5,471 per unit when the market price is only RM 50 per unit. 

In today’s papers, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman explained that the contracts dated back to 2002, before she was appointed to the post, and were issued following direct negotiations with the contractors concerned. Azalina can not avoid her responsibility by stating she was not the Minister then but should take the initiative to find out why did the government allowed the contractors to mark up contract prices up to 100 times the market price. As Minister, Datuk Azlina Othman must get to the bottom of this scandal explain why their spending were not in order, and take action against errant officials. 

Equally unacceptable is the official explanation by Treasury to the Auditor-General on this scandal which appears to try to cover up rather than seek the truth. On the purchase of equipment at higher than the market price, the Treasury said this was due to the different locations of the IKBN with suppliers also including infrastructure cost in their quotation and included other additional accessory items.  

For instance Treasury claimed the purchase of 90 sets of Faber Castell technical pens at RM1,146.56 per set when the market price is RM 160, each set also included a set of spare nibs and other accessories. This is wrong as the original purchase order did not include such accessories. Further such explanations are ridiculous as it would mean that the accessories are more expensive than the original item, as much as almost 10 times the price of the original technical pens. Is this another case of “Malaysia Boleh” where the accessories are more expensive than the main parent item? 

Both the Auditor-General and PAC should be given powers to punish errant government officers, especially Treasury, who try to cover up the scandal rather than expose the truth of those who abuse, misuse and mismanage public funds. An example of such cover-up is the claim by Treasury that the Youth and Sports Minister gave a letter of authority to the ministry’s secretary-general to sign eight contracts totaling more than RM 449 million.  

The Auditor-General said that the secretary-general had signed 11 contracts on behalf of the Government worth between RM 7.99 million and RM 74.2 million that were related to the National Youth Skills Institute project. Under existing rules, the secretary-general only has the authority to sign contracts worth less than RM 5 million. Anything larger should be signed by the minister or someone to whom the authority has been given. No such letter of authority was produced by the secretary-general during the audit. 

It is impossible to expect the PAC which is supposed to investigate, vet and recommend actions to be taken on this report, to be able to cover every item raised in the report. That is why such punitive powers should be given to the Auditor-General to take disciplinary actions and force officers that recommend purchases of items above market price to make good the difference. For bigger scandals and fund mismanagement, the PAC should step in and take action on cases that involved billions of ringgit such as the purchase of 6 naval OPVs for RM 6.75 billion that are either not operational or still not delivered.