PAC recommendations for Cabinet action, says Minister

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan said he would raise the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommendations in the Cabinet and ensure that appropriate corrective action is taken.

He said that as the minister responsible for governance, integrity and human rights, he would enlarge his ministry’s scope to also function as an extension of the PAC in government, thus further improving its effectiveness.

"With this arrangement, the PAC recommendations would be monitored and acted upon where necessary by the government. This will further strengthen the governance process and shed any notion that the PAC is a toothless tiger,” he said in a statement today.

Low said the government viewed seriously the issues highlighted in the PAC Report Card released yesterday for the period July 2013 to April 2015.

He referred in particular to the concern raised by PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed on the failure of the Ministry of Finance to submit official responses to the committee’s various recommendations.

“I wish to emphasise that all ministries are taking heed of the dissatisfaction expressed by the PAC in regard to the delay and lack of response,” he said.

Low said that as a further step to address issues highlighted in the Auditor-General’s Report, the government was currently looking into improving the disciplinary process and regulations to be more effective in dealing with misconduct in public office.

It was reported that Nur Jazlan said the government still had not given any feedback to the PAC on its recommendations on various cases even though the PAC meeting reports had been tabled in Parliament since November 2013.

Nur Jazlan said this contradicted Paragraph 304(b) of the Treasury Orders, which clearly stated that action must be taken by the Treasury after the report is tabled.