Report: All 25 ministries performed well in 2016

ALL 25 ministries performed excellently last year compared to two years before that, according to the Auditor- General’s Report 2016 Series 1.

The gist of the federal government’s financial statements and financial management of the ministries/departments/federal statutory bodies contained in the report shows overall improvement in the ministries’ financial management.

“In 2016, all the 25 ministries (100 per cent) achieved a level of excellence compared to 16 (64 per cent) and 20 (83.3 per cent) out of 25 ministries in 2015 and of 24 in 2014 respectively,” stated the report which was tabled in Parliament yesterday.

The Auditor- General’s Department has been conducting financial management audit (accountability index) on 25 ministries and 18 federal departments annually, and on 38 federal statutory bodies every three years.

This is to gauge whether their financial management followed the law and related financial regulations.

The report said the financial management performance of 18 federal departments showed an improvement, with 16 of these achieving excellence and two deemed good.

Meanwhile, the financial management of 38 federal statutory bodies showed 16 of them excelling, that of 19 rated as good and three as satisfactory.

Auditing was also conducted at the Youth and Sports Department (JBS) headquarters and 15 state JBS offices and 13 Social Security Organisation ( SOCSO) offices nationwide.

Also audited were six Malaysian overseas mission offices under the Foreign Ministry and seven federal statutory bodies’ delegation offices overseas.

Surprise auditing was also conducted at 265 centres of responsibility/federal government cost centres at the state and district levels under 20 ministries and 148 offices under the federal statutory bodies.

The auditing detected a number of cases like the stamp register, cash book and petty cash voucher book not being managed satisfactorily, surprise checks not conducted as set, and delegation of power not given to the officer holding the keys and combination number to the safe deposit box. — Bernama