PUTRAJAYA, Nov 6 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today called on department heads, directors-general and secretaries-general to minute all discussions regarding the Auditor-General’s (AG) report before handing it over to the Chief Secretary to the Government (KSN).
In his speech at the monthly assembly with staff of the Prime Minister’s Department here today, Anwar said the report needed to be re-examined to improve administrative governance, and identify and help reduce leakages in the country’s administration.
“I want the heads of departments to pay close attention not only to matters touching on the department, but the entire proposal to improve governance, and I will suggest to KSN that all of these be minuted.
“First of all, this is to ensure that the wide framework of the AG’s report and criticisms can be discussed, and secondly, matters that touch on the department. This way, the same problem will not recur,” he added.
Anwar said minuting the discussions would be important for the relevant departments to avoid similar problems from recurring.
“I have been making comments on the AG’s reports for a long time, there are problems that keep happening.
“If you read a report from a few years ago, a watch worth RM400 was charged RM4,000. There are school books that do not reach the students but are paid for.
“Things like these sometimes happen again because our monitoring is weak.”
Meanwhile, the prime minister said civil servants could emphasise deepening their knowledge and gaining experience from the west, but not to the point of losing their identity as a Muslim and a Malaysian.
“Civil servants represent a pattern of thinking and the formation of ideas than just carrying out normal tasks in their departments,” he said.
— Bernama
