<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, Member of the Integrity Institute of Malaysia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KOTA KINABALU: Year in and year out, the Auditor-General highlights cases of malfeasance by officials in ministries, departments, agencies, and government-linked companies, but no action seems to be taken to prevent such occurrences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These result in staggering losses of taxpayers \u2019money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the latest report, the Auditor-General has made 64 recommendations for implementation by the errant parties, but it remains to be seen how many of them will be implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Has there been an audit of all the previous year’s \u2018recommendations to ascertain how many of them have been enforced?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are the yearly losses due to poor governance, planning, negligence, oversight, corruption, or ineptitude?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In monetary terms, accumulated deficits have amounted to billions of ringgit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With just RM1 billion, the government could have built 10,000 low-cost houses for the B40 group or provided better facilities to our hospitals to improve the quality of life for the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is high time that we plug all loopholes and inject a sense of responsibility into those entrusted with the duty to serve the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since traditional checks and balances have failed to produce the desired results, perhaps we should now employ some out-of-the-box solutions for this recurring problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We could introduce a whistleblower incentive programme, coupled with financial incentives for reporting misconduct. This could encourage insiders to come forward with information on malfeasance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We could implement advanced data analytics tools to detect patterns of fraudulent activity early on. By leveraging predictive modelling, agencies can proactively identify and address potential issues before they escalate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We could implement a policy mandating regular rotations of leadership positions within government agencies. This could help prevent the development of entrenched power structures that might contribute to malfeasance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We could establish an Independent Oversight Commission composed of experts from various fields to oversee government operations and provide recommendations for improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of relying on an annual Auditor-General\u2019s report, could we not have half-yearly or even quarterly reports? This will ensure swift remedial action that is timely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, we seem to be only closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These unconventional approaches, alongside traditional measures such as stricter enforcement mechanisms, reward and punishment, and enhanced training on ethics and governance, could help break the cycle of malfeasance and foster a culture of accountability within government institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, Member of the Integrity Institute of Malaysia KOTA KINABALU: Year in and year out, the Auditor-General highlights cases of malfeasance by officials in ministries, departments, agencies, and government-linked companies, but no action seems to be taken to prevent such occurrences. These result in staggering losses of taxpayers \u2019money. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":29591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29592,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29590\/revisions\/29592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}