17 performance audits, 62 recommendations for 13 ministries

Seventeen performance audits of RM90.635 billion were carried out involving programmes, activities and projects at 13 ministries for the Auditor-General’s Report (LKAN) 2019 Series 2.

Auditor-General Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid in a statement issued after the tabling of the report at the Dewan Rakyat today said 62 recommendations had also been submitted on the activities of the ministries, federal departments and statutory bodies to enable corrective and improvement actions to be taken.

He said the National Audit Department (NAD) in conjunction with LKAN 2019 Series 2 had also conducted performance audits of 21 programmes, activities and projects involving 26 departments and 10 state government agencies, as well as 11 management audits of state government companies.

For these, he said a total of 130 recommendations for improvement had been submitted: 88 recommendations to be considered for implementation by state departments and agencies and 42 recommendations by state government companies.

Nik Azman said the performance audits were conducted in accordance with Section 6(d) of the Audit Act 1957 and guided by international auditing standards issued by the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.

He said the audit was to assess whether government activities, projects, programmes have been implemented prudently, efficiently and effectively, as well as the extent to which the objectives of these activities, projects, programmes were achieved.

“It also aims to assess the extent to which public money has been spent prudently, efficiently and effectively without waste and to get the best value for money,” he said.

Overall, Nik Azman said the audit found that the implementation of government activities, projects and programmes had been done according to the set objectives.

However, he said there were still issues of inefficiency and non-compliance, as well as weaknesses in the management of activities, projects and programmes that affected their efficiency and effectiveness to produce the expected output, results and impact.

On the management audits of seven federal government companies, Nik Azman said five companies were found to have achieved the objectives of their establishment while two others had yet to fully achieve their objectives.

“For good corporate governance practice, only one company was found to be at a good level, five companies were at a satisfactory level, and one company was still at an unsatisfactory level.

“For financial status audit, five companies were stable while two others showed an unstable financial position,” he said.

He said 41 recommendations had been submitted to the management of these companies to be considered for implementation to enable corrective action and improvement to be taken.

The LKAN 2019 Series 2 on the activities of ministries, federal government departments and federal bodies, will be uploaded on NAD’s website at http://www.audit.gov.my, after the tabling at the Dewan Rakyat.

At the state level, it can only be uploaded to the NAD’s website after it is tabled at their respective state assembly sittings.

Issues on LKAN 2019 Siri 2 will also be uploaded to the Auditor-General’s Dashboard portal.

Nik Azman said the LKAN 2019 Series 2 was initially scheduled to be tabled at the Dewan Rakyat in March, but the Parliament could not sit as scheduled following the proclamation of emergency on Jan 12.

“Despite the delay in the tabling of the report at Dewan Rakyat, the audit findings reported in LKAN were still relevant in improving the management of activities, projects and programmes of the ministries, departments, agencies, as well as federal and state government companies,” he said.

The NAD had also improved the reporting of LKAN this time around by providing the summary of the audit findings through various infographics, he added.