Govt awaiting PAC findings before taking action on RM620mil loss in public funds, says deputy minister

KUALA LUMPUR: Appropriate action will be taken based on the findings by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over the loss of RM620mil in public funds due to non-compliance of federal ministries and departments with financial management, says Yamani Hafez Musa.

The Deputy Finance Minister said that it was appropriate to take action as some of those named in the Auditor-General’s report were currently under investigation by PAC.

"I think a lot of them have been called up by the PAC, isn’t it?

"So we’ll refer to the PAC report and take appropriate action from there,” said Yamani Hafez in reply to a supplementary question from Nga Kor Ming (PH-Teluk Intan), who asked about the ministry's efforts to identify and resolve the issue highlighted in the latest AG's report.

On Oct 28, the AG Datuk Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid reported that non-compliance of federal ministries and departments with financial management had led to issues involving irregular payments, loss of public funds and wastage amounting to RM620.07mil in 2020.

On a separate matter, Yamani Hafez estimated that the one-off cukai makmur (prosperity tax) announced during Budget 2022 would generate more than RM3bil for the Treasury.

He explained that the government’s plan to impose the one-off tax was aimed at companies that prospered during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said the tax was also among the measures to increase revenue.

“Seeing as these companies have gained high profits, we feel they should contribute to the recovery efforts," he added.

Yamani Hafez also noted the RM33bil loss when trading at Malaysia’s stock market opened on Tuesday (Nov 2) morning.

“Many analysts said those who quit the market were short-term investors.

"We should give it a few days for the long-term investors to come in and then only will the market share be competitively priced,” he added.