The Malaysian Insight

THE Special Investigation Committee on Governance, Procurement and Finance will focus on investigations involving projects managed by the Defence Ministry for now.

According to its chairman, Ambrin Buang, the committee’s investigation team will eventually review other ministries.

“We haven’t decided, we are just concentrating on the Defence Ministry first.

“There are quite a number of issues to look into. Then, hopefully, we will look at other places,” he told reporters, when asked which ministry will be investigated, after giving a speech at an auditing conference for civil servants in Kuala Lumpur today. 

The former auditor-general says everything will be done according to due process which could take time.

The committee’s main task is to investigate and propose improvements on the government’s procurement procedures with an objective to stop overspending.

He had previously said the committee was given the mandate from the government to investigate cases and suspicious purchases of assets by ministries in terms of misappropriation, misuse of power or national financial wastage.

Many government projects awarded through direct negotiations had become problematic, says Ambrin.

“They (contractors) are meant to complete the projects at the stipulated time, with minimal cost using the best quality materials possible.

“But all this is not present when the projects go for auditing,” he said.

Ambrin says problems arise when the projects cannot be tracked or are sold to sub-contractors.

“Usually projects done through direct negotiations should be completed according to specifications and at the best price. But this was not done.

“Instead, they are delayed for several months and incur additional costs,” he said.

As to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government’s pledge to uphold transparency on direct negotiation projects, Ambrin says he is adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

He says it’s too early to judge now as the government has only been in power for four months.

“They (PH) can run this country better by learning from the mistakes of the past government, and if they repeat the same mistakes, the auditor-general will remind them.

“We must wait and see and should not be too quick to judge. But, we will demand what the government has pledged. And that is direct negotiations through on open tenders. – September 13, 2018.