7 ministries achieve excellent results, says AG
KUALA LUMPUR: Seven of 25 ministries achieved excellent results in financial management (index accountability) last year, Auditor General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad said.
She said 16 ministries achieved good levels, while another two achieved satisfactory levels.
“In addition, 13 departments achieved excellent levels and five achieved good levels.
“The performance of financial management at 21 Federal Statutory Bodies, which were audited once every five years, showed that two reported excellent achievements, 12 achieved good levels, five achieved satisfactory levels and two reported less satisfactory levels,” she said yesterday.
The Auditor General’s 2017 Report (LKAN) Series 1 was tabled in Parliament yesterday.
Madinah said the audit used a new approach based on risks, where every criterion was categorised based on three levels of risk: high, low and moderate.
She said in line with the new approach, reporting for 2017 LKAN Series 1 was made based only on the 2017 financial year performance without comparison with the performance of the previous year.
At the state government level, the National Audit Department carried out financial management auditing (Accountability Index) at 116 ministries/state de- partments where 45 ministries/state de- partments achieved excellent results, 47 had good results, 17 had satisfactory results while two had unsatisfactory results.
Madinah said the audit of 35 state statutory bodies showed that 13 achieved excellent results, 11 reported good levels, nine reported satisfactory levels, one reported less satisfactory level and one was unsatisfactory.
She said the audit of 44 local authorities showed that 20 achieved excellent results, 18 reported good levels, three were satisfactory, two reported less satisfactory levels and one was unsatisfactory.
“For state Islamic religious councils, one posted excellent results, three had good levels and one had satisfactory results.”
She said 14 recommendations were made on the financial statement of the Federal Government for 2017 and the financial management of ministries/departments and federal statutory bodies.
Forty-six recommendations were made on activities carried out by federal ministries/departments and statutory bodies, and 21 recommendations for government-owned companies and federal agencies.
“A total of 162 recommendations were submitted on the management of activities/finance of ministries/departments/agencies and the management of state government companies to improve the weaknesses reported.”
She said the report found that the government received RM220.41 billion in revenue, an increase of RM7.99 billion (3.8 per cent) compared with 2016 (RM212.42 billion).
“The government approved an allocation of RM216.70 billion, of which RM217.70 billion (100.5 percent) was spent. For development, the federal ministries/departments spent RM44.88 billion (99.0 percent) of the RM45.32 billion allocation.
“The Federal Government suffered a deficit of RM40.32 billion. It took loans amounting to RM129.25 billion to meet the deficit and repay loans.”
She said the National Audit Department would give a briefing on major issues raised in the report to the Public Accounts Committee after the appointment of its members was finalised.
LKAN is available on the website of the National Audit Department at https://www.audit.gov.my.