Just admit to mistakes, don't cover up, PAC tells Govt agencies

Government departments are sometimes reluctant to admit to mistakes, even if it was their various mismanagements are exposed through the Auditor-General's yearly report.

This was the view of the Public Accounts Committee, the Parliamentary watchdog over the government's funding and public expenditures, when commenting on the 2012 A-G's report released today.

"Government departments, if you do a mistake, just admit it. No need to cover it up," Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed told reporters in a Parliament press briefing.

"I find that government departments sometimes don't want to admit any mistakes," he added.

Nur Jazlan also said that the PAC will summon “three or four” ministries for questioning over what was revealed in the A-G's report.

“We have not studied the report in detail, but there are three or four (ministries) that we will definitely call up. I won’t mention which… just wait and see,” said Nur Jazlan, who is also a BN MP for Pulai.

Nur Jazlan said those ministries in trouble involve construction and procurement in deals worth hundreds of millions in ringgit.

He said the committee would look through the report for the next three weeks, then come up with a list of ministries and government agencies to haul up, in the order of the gravity of the offences.

He added that should they discover “major issues” in the report, a committee would be formed, chaired by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, to come up with corrective steps.

Meanwhile, all projects exceeding RM1 billion would go through an ongoing auditing process before its completion, while projects costing RM500 million would be continuously monitored, announced Nur Jazlan.