6 special committees investigate punitive reprimands in Auditor-General's report

The government has set up six Special Investigation Committees to investigate 10 punitive reprimands involving misappropriation, power abuse, misconduct or wilful neglect at six ministries.

The punitive reprimands are contained in the Auditor General's Report 2015 Series 2.

Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa cited the six ministries as Home Ministry; Higher Education Ministry; Works Ministry; Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry; Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry; and Prime Minister's Department.

"Based on the investigation conducted as of yesterday, three of the 10 reprimands have basis for disciplinary proceeding to be commenced, involving five officers.

"Five reprimands were found to have no element of misappropriation, misconduct or wilful neglect but rather needed fine-tuning of the systems, procedures and rules.

"Followup coordination and scrutiny were held with the National Audit Department, Finance Ministry, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and Public Service Department Legal Adviser," he told the media here, Wednesday.

He added that the National Audit Department and Special Investigation Committees would review two punitive reprimands.

Ali said the Auditor General's Report 2015 Series 2 tabled in parliament on Monday, contained 902 corrective reprimands or 95.6 per cent involving improvement of systems and procedures and 42 punitive reprimands or 4.4 per cent involving six ministries, five federal statutory bodies and eight state governments.

He said 290 or 32.2 per cent of the corrective reprimands had already been acted on by the ministries/agencies concerned, while improvement action on the other 612 or 67.8 per cent was pending due to the time consuming process.

As for punitive reprimands, Ali said 10 were at ministry level, 17 (federal statutory bodies) and 15 (state governments).

Overall, he said, of the 42 punitive reprimands, 18 had basis for disciplinary proceedings on 19 officers to be commenced while 16 were still under investigation.

"Eight reprimands did not have any element of misappropriation, power abuse, misconduct or neglect of duty. One outcome of the audit would be investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission," he said.

Meanwhile, Ali said there were 1,610 corrective reprimands and 85 punitive reprimands in the Auditor General's Report Series 1 and Series 2.

He said in the Auditor General's Report 2012 till 2015, two cases were still under investigation by MACC while disciplinary action had been taken against 154 officers who were imposed surcharges of warning to dismissal by the Disciplinary Board.

"For corrective reprimands, 438 or 61.9 per cent of 708 had been acted on for improvement and 270 or 38.1 per cent are still being dealt with," he said.

To produce a high performance, high integrity and proactive public service, Ali said, the public project engagement unit was set up under the Prime Minister's Department on July 1 this year.

The unit provides government physical facilities and is fully responsible for activities of project construction and completion.

"The unit is also for transformation of the public project implementation system towards enhancing performance and developing local experts with integrity and competence in project management," he said.

Apart from that, Ali said, the Public Service Department had been asked to find a mechanism to enable the special investigation committees set up at federal level to investigate the punitive reprimands involving state governments and statutory bodies.

The implementation of the mechanism will be discussed with the relevant state authorities and statutory bodies, he said.

"Ministry secretary-generals, state secretaries, chief executives must take immediate and firm action on the reprimands and non-compliances that were reported in the internal audit," he added.

-- BERNAMA