DEPUTY Law and Institutional Reform Minister Ramkarpal Singh said 24 issues of leakages, loss of public funds, and serious wastage have been identified from seven auditor-general reports.  

He said the problems covered various ministries, agencies, and departments at federal and state levels. 

“They were categorised as punitive issues,” Ramkarpal said in Dewan Rakyat today. 

He said weaknesses in management and procurement contracts, project management, and zakat management, and suspected non-compliance with regulations were among the issues raised in the report.  

“As of October 30, 2023, 12 issues have been investigated. Two were investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and another 10 investigated by a special investigation committee and an internal investigation committee coordinated by the Public Service Department.  

“Another 12 issues are still under investigation. Five of them are being investigated by MACC, six by the police, and one by the Malaysian Competition Commission.” 

He said based on the investigation that had been carried out so far, a civil servant was charged on April 16, 2023 with abuse of power under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009, while 25 other civil servants were slapped with disciplinary action.  

Ramkarpal was responding to Wong Kah Woh (Taiping-PH), who asked the government to state actions taken in addressing issues reported in the Auditor General’s Report for 2020 and 2021.  

As a step forward, the Bukit Gelugor lawmaker said the Special Cabinet Committee on Corruption on July 6 decided that auditor-general reports should be presented periodically to the ministers with a new format that was more structured and detailed. 

“This is so that each issue reported can be effectively acted upon by every minister or agency,” he said.  

Ramkarpal also stated that a few agencies had acted upon recommendations given in the Auditor-General’s Report.  

“The first by the Malaysian Customs Department where the Auditor-General’s Report in 2021 had reported that Customs duty amounting to RM72.32 million was under-collected for the period from 2015 to 2021 due to not meeting the requirements of resident ownership of the vehicles.  

“The Customs Department has improved the standard operating procedure to assess residency criteria. 

“Secondly, with regard to the Road Transport Department (JPJ), the Auditor-General’s Report in 2021 stated that the penalty report for the service of printing of controlled documents amounting to RM149,178.00 was not collected for the period 2019-2020. 

“Based on the auditor-general’s recommendation, JPJ has now recovered RM72,667 from that amount and has continued to carry out stricter enforcement of the terms of the agreement,” he added. – October 30, 2023.