PUTRAJAYA, July 14 — Action has been taken against 1,000 officers for flaws and weaknesses contained in the 2012-2018 Auditor-General’s Report.
Auditor-General Datuk Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid said of the total, 255 of the officers were penalised, 604 officers were freed and proceeding still on going against 141 others.
On the punishment taken, he said, they included warning (141), suspension of salary movement (26), fine (11), salary cut (10), fine and warning (nine), surcharge and warning (sembilan), salary cut and warning (seven) and demotion (one).
Apart from that, he said 29 officers were imposed surcharge, court sentence (two), fine and surcharge (two), salary cut and fine (one) and demotion, as well as warning (one).
“Sometimes we feel that the punishment imposed by a department (against the officers) is soft, but the Audit Department can not intervene because we only do the audit and look for the non-compliance,” he said at a media conference on the Auditor-General’s Report 2018 Series 3 here today.
Nik Azman said the National Audit Department (JAN) respected the decision taken by the committee at the respective departments that conducted the investigation, whereby they may also take into account other factors in making the assessment.
“JAN may see the punishment as light, but the department may take certain factors or other mitigation factors in reducing the sentence,” he added.
He said whenever the department conducts an audit, a follow-up audit would be conducted to find out more the cause or reason for anything to happen.
“For example, if there is excess payment, we will do an in-depth follow-up audit and will see what it is, why it happened and who is responsible and who gave the approval,” he added.
He said JAN would next meet with the Royal Malaysia Police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Public Service Department for them to set up an internal inquiry to identify any mistakes, abuse of power or negligence for appropriate action to be taken.
Every action or process taken will be recorded and uploaded on the Auditor-General’s Dashboard, he added.
PAC yet to receive audit report
Meanwhile, in a separate statement Nik Azman said the Auditor-General’s Report 2018 Series 3 could not be presented to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as the new PAC chairman and members have yet to be appointed.
Nik Azman said, normally, the National Audit Department would hold a special session with the PAC to brief them on the main issues raised in the report on the same day the report was tabled in Parliament.
“The report will only be presented to the PAC once the new PAC chairman and all members are appointed,” he said in a statement issued in Putrajaya today.
The report was tabled at the Dewan Rakyat today upon the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.
— Bernama
