‘Two laws can help solve the problem highlighted in A-G’s Report”

PETALING JAYA: Two legal reforms are needed to effectively end the perennial cases of mismanagement and misgovernance that keep appearing in every edition of the Auditor-General’s reports, say anti-graft experts.

These would be amending laws that deal with graft to include a misconduct in public office (MiPO) component and enacting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), they said.

The reason the Auditor-General keeps finding problems is that there is no culture and mechanism to enforce accountability in the civil service and statutory bodies, said Transparency International-Malaysia President Dr Muhammad Mohan.

“Public officials do not understand what their fiduciary duties are when they are in service. In the civil service, the concept of hiring and firing must be strictly enforced,” he said.

Auditors are supposed to be the “third line of defence” when it comes to dealing with malfeasance in public works projects, as the first and second line are the civil servants themselves, he explained.

“The question is what is happening to the first line and second line of defence?

“Thus, the government must hold the relevant heads of department accountable,” said Muhammad.

MiPO, which was part of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 2019-2023, was never implemented and it is high time the unity government did so, he added.

In the NACS 2019-2023 document, MiPO criminalises and imposes punishment on public officials who deliberately cause leakages or wastage of government funds.

“The government must accelerate adding this as a provision in the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) Act.

“MiPO can hold public officials accountable for failing in their fiduciary duties. Without such reforms, we are going to see the same issues repeated again and again,” said Muhammad.

The second part of the 2024 Auditor-General’s Report that was released yesterday found that delays in the construction of water and sewage treatment plants as well as the “River of Life” project in Kuala Lumpur had cost taxpayers billions.

Auditor-General Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi said the delays were due to lack of monitoring or supervision by the relevant parties, lack of coordination between the relevant agencies, incomplete databases, and weaknesses in policies and work procedures.

“These weaknesses resulted in programmes, activities or projects not being completed within the set period, substandard work quality, increased costs, and the government not receiving value for the money spent,” she said.

Another anti-graft expert, Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar, said the government should also expedite the FOIA to improve the monitoring of public projects.

Such an Act would empower ordinary citizens to request information on any public project or policy developed by the government, as well as how the federal, state or local authorities spend taxpayer funds, said Akhbar, who is president of the Malaysia Integrity and Governance Society.

“With the Official Secrets Act, potential whistleblowers and the public cannot get information on what is going on in the government because possessing such information could be a criminal offence,” he noted.

He added that Putrajaya can also introduce project-based grants for NGOs and journalists to conduct investigations of their own on public sector projects and agencies.

“But the most important thing is for the No.1 person at the head of the government to be committed to erasing corruption and mismanagement and to walk the talk,” said Akhbar.