Delay in tabling of AG's Report unacceptable & ridiculous

It is a shame that until today, the Auditor-General's 2011 Report has not been tabled in Parliament. Today is the last day for Members of Parliament to debate on Budget 2013.

From Monday onwards, the Ministers will give their replies and MPs will not be able to raise new issues but are only allowed to ask for clarifications (minta penjelasan). After the Ministers' reply session, we will enter the committee stage debate, where MPs are limited to debating only on items in the Expenditure. Any MP who attempts to debate on the Auditor-General's Report during these stages will risk being labelled by the Speaker as "wasting the Dewan's time" or "defying Standing Orders".

On September 24, 2012, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of parliamentary affairs, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said that the tabling of the Auditor-General's Report was held back so that "it won't steal the limelight from (debate on) the Budget".

His statement was confirmed by the Auditor-General Ambrin Buang who revealed that he was asked to delay the report to allow more time for the Budget to be debated in Parliament.

The reason given by Nazri and Ambrin Buang is totally unacceptable and ridiculous!

While debate on Budget 2013 of course very important, the Auditor-General's Report is equally important as we have to make sure that money allocated in the Budget was wisely spent for the said purposes. Basically, the Report is akin to a post-mortem of the previous year's Budget so that we can:

  1. Identify those items/programmes that were executed well so that they are repeated in future where applicable; and

  2. Identify those items/programmes that were executed badly so that planning procedures, processes and communication issues may be improved/reviewed in order to carry them out more efficiently in the future.

The Budget, no matter how beautifully crafted, if it cannot be delivered as planned, is no different from a stack of rubbish. As such, the Auditor-General's Report plays an incredibly important role to ensure that taxpayers' money are spent wisely according to the original plan.

It is sad that even the Auditor-General himself does not realize the importance of his work and his responsibility to the people of this country. In fact, during the GTP 2.0 roadshow on July 24, 2012, one of the proposals put forward by Pemandu in fighting corruption is to have the AG's Report tabled in Parliament periodically for every sitting, so that MPs can debate on it more often instead of only once a year (see below).

http://www.pemandu.gov.my/gtp/Fighting_Corruption-@-GTP_2@0_Fighting_Corruption.aspx

Transforming the Attorney General's (AG) Reporting Process

Delays and government inaction in addressing concerns or recommendations arising from the AG's report have led to unfavourable public perception over the ability of the Government to act on cases of corruption and fraud. As most of these problems pertain to the current reporting process, the COR NKRA has proposed the implementation of four new initiatives in the GTP 2.0 to streamline the AG reporting process. Specifically, the transformation will entail:

  • Fast-tracking access to the AG Performance Audit Report: Presently, the AG presents its performance audit once a year, but the amount of information contained in the report is overwhelmingly large. This initiative calls for the AG's performance audit report be tabled thrice yearly, thereby enabling speedier and more efficient processing of its contents enabling quick remedial action.

  • Establishing an Action Committee on the AG Report: The setting up of a special committee comprising auditors who worked on the report and MACC officers will enhance collaboration between the two bodies. The aim here is to expedite action on the performance report.

  • Establishing the AG's online dashboard: This initiative will set up an online dashboard that monitors the actions taken on issues raised by the AG report. The aim here is to promote transparency and to induce pressure on the relevant authorities to act on outstanding issues.

  • Establishing the Putrajaya Inquisition: This initiative will work to clear the large backlog of performance issues raised by past AG reports. The Inquisition will be chaired by the Prime Minister and other relevant ministries to clear old cases, and will be dissolved after the backlog has been cleared.

It is a shame that after spending so much money on Pemandu, not only we did not adhere to the suggestions and proposals made by the agency to table the audit report thrice yearly, we are now even delaying the tabling of it in the Dewan Rakyat!

In this situation, how can the Rakyat be convinced that our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib is truly committed and serious about fighting corruption, and that Pemandu is not just for window-dressing purposes.

Teo Nie Ching DAP Assistant National Publicity Secretary & MP for Serdang