Better financial management performance in 2013, says Auditor-General

Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang said a total of 194 ministries, departments and agencies obtained the four-star rating, from 143 in 2012 and 111 in 2011.

"This achievement shows implementation of the Accountability Index has motivated officers to take action to improve their financial management," he said.

He said this in a statement on the Auditor-General's report on financial statement and financial statement for 2013, as well as activities by the federal government, statutory bodies and state government Series 3 which was tabled in Parliament today after getting the consent from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah.

Ambrin said for Series 3, a total of 62 performance audit and 22 management audit of government companies were carried out at the federal and state levels.

"The audit that was carried encompassed construction, maintenance, law enforcement, acquisition, asset management, revenue management, socio-economic enhancement programme, agriculture, infrastructure, information technology and communication and company management," he added.

He said in the Series 3 report, the National Audit Department submitted 112 recommendations to the federal government, federal statutory bodies (22) and state governments (136) to improve their weaknesses.

Ambrin said as of today (Nov 10), the department had audited 462 government financial statements and government agencies for 2013, where 416 of them were awarded the Clean Audit Certificate.

Meanwhile, 12 financial statements were awarded the Audit Certificate based on 'Emphasis of Matter'; 20 were given Audit Certificate With Reprimand as there were several standards which were not met, 11 still in the process of auditing, while three financial statements had yet to be submitted.

The content and synopsis of the Series 3 report can be surfed at the National Audit Department's website at http://www.audit.gov.my from today and any enquiries or views could be addressed to the Auditor-General.

Apart from that, a town hall session with the media on the report would be held on Nov 12 at Angkasapuri, which would be attended by Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa and the ministries' secretaries-general.