Getting to bottom of what went wrong

Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah says she has set a time frame of five months for her ministry to correct its financial management issues.

Met by reporters after officiating at the Women Leadership Training Programme here yesterday, she said that while the less-than-satisfactory performance recorded in the Auditor-General’s (AG) Report 2018 was disheartening, she was determined to move forward.

“Starting from the 25th of this month, I have called for everyone involved in the ministry to come together and we will start monitoring to ensure that we do not do the same mistakes (that were pointed out in the report).

“I am giving the ministry five months for these corrective measures to see that all procedures – from administration and asset procurement to recording of assets – will comply with the treasury instruction,” she said.

Fatimah added that the AG Report 2018 was a good platform for the ministry to evaluate its standing.

“Of course, my first reaction was to feel very sad. When the report came out saying that we were at the bottom, it was very demoralising. All the hard work we put in felt as though it was for nothing.

“But whatever it is, it is done. I view this report very seriously…because it shows us where we (ministry) are and we are not happy where we are, so improvements need to be made,” she stressed.

The AG Report 2018 released on July 15 covered the financial management performance of 32 ministries, government departments and agencies in Sarawak.

The Ministry of International Trade and E-Commerce topped the list of state ministries, departments and government agencies audited last year in terms of financial management.

It was among 24 listed in the report as having ‘excellent’ performance, with seven others rated as ‘good’.

Fatimah’s ministry was last in the ranking.

In the AG Report 2017, only 11 Sarawak ministries, government departments and agencies were rated ‘excellent’, with 14 others ‘good’ and seven ‘satisfactory’.