Money made by practices which are not entirely above board cannot be justified by its mode of usage.The biggest apparition that we face is that taxpayers’ money exists for the full welfare of the state, when in reality it exists so partially and sometimes negligibly. Call it Barisanmania if you will, but, spending of taxpayers money is a colossal waste hoarding statues of oneself is a sign of psychological unrest corruption activist Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen argument that flying economy class while submitting bills for business or first class is justified because the money went to her MCA Cronies and not to her personally can be described as naïve at the best. And facile or hypocritical at the worst.A reimbursement by definition, needs a bill. Bill amounts being less than the reimbursement amount would leave accounts departments with a lot of explaining to do when the time comes for auditing. If ways are devised to bypass those objections, such jugglery of figures is not counted among established tenets of honesty
why is she for corruption by politicians? Just because the amounts involved are astronomical?
We are a nation that has been brainwashed into believing that parliament is sacrosanct. I say brainwashed, since some of the worst shenanigans that ail this nation are played out within the circular walls of that building. I have little doubt that what was finally commented upon and believed by a lot of people was a twisted version. But that did not matter. For those, and that number is very big, who are uncomfortable with Arvind’s meteoric rise, this was an opportunity to browbeat him with. And they made the best of the opportunity.
Corruption and honesty are absolute words. They hardly leave room for explanations and if the person in question has positioned herself as society’s conscience keeper in these matters, then there is an even more acute need for her own conduct to be completely above board.
On the other hand, if the Bill submitted was inflated… is "corrupt" an invalid word to use for it?
Datuk Seri Ng Yen Yen denied today that the Tourism Ministry overpaid nearly RM270 million for advertisements last year, despite a finding by the Auditor-General that showed direct negotiations in breach of government rules had contributed to the extra amount.
She provided no explanation, however, as to why the Auditor-General’s report tabled in Parliament this week had singled out her ministry for breaching Treasury rules.
“Ministry of Tourism Malaysia did not overspend, did not spend more... The report says that the amount of direct buy is more but not the total amount of promotion is more, there’s a difference,” Ng told reporters today following the launch of Art Expo Malaysia 2011 here.
The Auditor-General had reported that the ministry had overpaid in advertising fees when it chose to use direct bookings instead of open tenders, to which Ng said, “Direct [negotiations] can be conducted.”
“[With] direct [negotiation,] you deal directly with the media, you do away with intermediary. The prices we paid are never above the market price,” she said.
“However, I have instructed my secretary-general to do a full study of this report and take all necessary steps to fine tune and strengthen the management.”
When asked if the ministry would be opting for open tenders in the future, Ng said the ministry will do “whatever is best for us”.
“When you buy from media directly, a lot of intermediaries are off. Their price is standard,” she said, adding that it was impossible for companies to overcharge the ministry because “we know the price”.
“So we admit that the report is true, but we did not overspend. In fact our promotion budget was the lowest in 2009 and 2010, but the amount of direct [negotiations were] higher because we wanted to go right on and get as much value for money as possible,” she said.
Ng then pointed out that her ministry had obtained a “Sijil Bersih” in the Auditor-General report, which she described as “very important”.
The Auditor-General Report for 2010 showed the Tourism Ministry overpaid nearly RM270 million for advertisements when it chose to use direct bookings instead of open tenders.
The report noted that in doing so, the ministry had also breached the Treasury’s regulations as laid down in a circular in 2007.
The ministry also spent a whopping RM1.95 million to buy 1,000 racks — RM1,950 per rack — to hold its tourism pamphlets for the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 campaign, the report said, again pointing out the move was done without the treasury’s approval.
Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang said the ministry must hold an open tender “so the price offered will be more competitive, transparent and provide better value for money”.
“In addition, this method would have avoided power abuse as well as created internal controls and good governance in booking advertisement space,” he said in the report.
He noted further that if the ministry had held an open tender, its advertising spending would have cost RM75.38 million.
The Auditor-General said it was also unable to confirm the distribution of 22 of the 1,000 racks as the ministry could not supply the note of delivery as proof of claim, while another 127 racks were also not accounted for.
It noted the ministry’s explanation that 622 racks had been distributed to hotels, 127 were “expired” by the contracted company, Leo Communications Sdn Bhd, due to “financial complications” and lack of storage space, and as many as 85 racks were locked in the company’s storage hold.
Pakatan Rakyat leaders slammed as mere rhetoric an announcement by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission that they will start opening files to investigate 36 cases of corruption involving government’s departments and agencies.
"These discrepancies keep repeating every year even though the Auditor-General Report has issued stern warnings. It is very unfortunate that every time the Auditor-General Report is released, we see no further action is taken by MACC against those suspected of corruption,” Lau Weng San, the DAP MP for Kampung Tunku.
Cases from 2006 still unsolved
He pointed out that if the MACC was sincere, it would have solved many corruption cases by now rather than have outstanding files dating back from 2006.
In 2006, among the wrongdoings reported by the Auditor-General were the purchase of a pen worth RM160 for RM1,146, which is RM986 more than the actual retail price.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports had also bought a car-jack that normally would have cost only RM50 but the department paid RM 1,664 instead.
How then can Malaysians depend on the MACC, Lau asked, when cases as far back as five years ago are still unsolved, he asked.
Act sternly without fear or favour
For cases involving over-spending by top government leaders, the MACC's progress was even worse. “Are we to hope that civil servants at the lower-level are not over-spending?” asked Kampung Tunku state assemblyman.
“MACC must be stern and seen as credible in their duty. If not, civil servants will not feel obliged to follow when the Chief of the Auditor-General issued any warning,” said Lau.
The Auditor's General Report for 2010 was delayed and finally released for tabling at Parliament only after a 17-day wait. More than 32 ministries and federal departments were found to have mismanaged their finances.
No comments:
Post a Comment