Go to the ground to check on projects, Musa urges PAC
Published on: Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) members play an important role as the eyes and ears of the Government in ensuring the people's satisfaction towards the Government's service delivery system.Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the success of a government administration is measured by the people's trust towards the Government and, therefore, it is very important to ensure that this level of confidence remains high.Nowadays, he said, the people are getting more conscious and they have high expectation towards the Government's delivery system and, therefore, the Government's administrative machinery must continue to work effectively and efficiently.
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He urged PAC members to go to the ground to ensure that public funds are not misused."This culture of going to the ground can also help us directly monitor that the various projects and programmes are carried out and benefit the people according to plan. In this context, it is important for PAC to ensure the implementation of programmes and activities using public funds are value for money, without excess or misappropriation," he said.Musa said this at the launching of the National PAC Seminar on Monday. His speech was read by Special Tasks Minister Datuk Teo Chee Kang.He lamented that the Auditor-General Report regularly revealed repeated problems such as late project delivery, low quality completed works or not according to specifications and astronomical material prices.
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All these weaknesses, he said, reflected badly on the Government because the projects were carried out using public money."Therefore, the Auditor-General Report must be studied and referred to from time to time for us to improve and strengthen the various weaknesses in departments and agencies. I also hope that PAC will focus on all these repeat weaknesses so that they would be our 'lesson learned'," he said.
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Musa also said that while PAC stays updated on current issues related to public services, it should also expand its discussion scope to various other topics involving public money and public interest.Continued monitoring from the PAC, he said, will help the Government in reducing waste and leakages in its administration."The State Government will always take into account the opinion and proposal by PAC and we appreciate the contributions by PAC, not only in strengthening the public and private fund management but also in bolstering the accountability and integrity among our public servants," he said.More than 400 participants took part in the seminar, the first of its kind to be held in the State. Earlier in his speech, Sabah PAC Chairman Datuk Ahmad Bujang said Sabah PAC conducted three meetings last year and went to the ground twice in its efforts to address the issues mentioned in the Auditor-General Report."Last year, Sabah PAC solved several issues and assisted the State Government, especially in collecting and reducing arrears. We managed to hold discussions with the relevant parties and those arrears that have accumulated over the years were finally resolved.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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