Malaysia misused public funds -- audit report

The Malaysian government spent millions of dollars on unauthorized payments and paid inflated prices for goods, according to newspaper accounts Monday of an auditor general report.

The auditor general's report for 2006 found that several ministries had misused public funds, including millions of dollars disbursed without authorization to unregistered non-governmental organizations and other projects, the reports said.

The reports did not give details or say how much money the government overspent or misused in total.

Between 2004 and 2006, the Women, Family and Development Ministry reportedly gave out 6 million ringgit more than was authorized to non-governmental groups.

Several organizations received more than 1.5 million ringgit in total although they still had funds, The Star said.

The government also spent 8.39 million ringgit more than the market price in 2002 on technical books, a digital camera and other items for a program under the Youth and Sports Ministry, the New Straits Times said.

The government also paid highly inflated prices for a wide range of small goods, including 1,146 ringgit for a set of pens worth 160 ringgit and 5,700 ringgit on a car jack worth 50 ringgit.


The A-G’s Report pointed out that the institute had paid a total of RM3.06 million more than the market rate when it bought 15 desktop packages, complete with Computer Assisted Design Drafting, for a total of RM4.47 million or RM29,385 a package.

The report said the market rate for a similar package was only RM21,000 for commercial use and RM9,250 for training/educational use.

The Report on the Treasury’s Response offers no explanation.

The A-G’s Report also pointed out that the ministry had paid RM181,900 for 17 sets of 10 titles of technical books each, which worked out to be RM10,700 a set. The same set of 10 titles costs RM417 from the Dewan Bahasa dan

Pustaka Cooperative. The report said the ministry had forked out an excess of RM178,811.

The explanation in the Report on the Treasury’s Response does not make sense at all: “The payment included the supply of 10 sets of books for every title required.”


The ministers whose ministries were named in the Auditor-General’s Report 2006 for having irregularities

and shortcomings in their expenditure will be hauled up to explain, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak said.

“They have to answer,” he said, without elaborating.


Sigh ! While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry