Guns lost in toilet and even in the office but not at sea, says ministry

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — The Home Ministry today declared that the guns that went missing from the police's inventory were lost in the toilet - among other places - and not at sea.

In a written parliamentary reply to Batu MP Tian Chua, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi listed out five reasons why the police lost a total of 44 firearms between the years 2010 and 2012, which included losing a gun in the toilet.

There were also cases where thieves broke into police cars and stole guns that were left in the vehicle and incidents where police officers were victims of robbery or snatch theft.

Guns were also misplaced while officers were on duty, and some even lost their guns in the office, according to the written reply.

“Of the 44 guns that went missing, seven have been recovered,” Zahid said in reply to Tian Chua, who asked for a breakdown of the firearms that went missing and the value of the missing weapons.

The second-term MP also asked what procedures police follow in cases of missing guns and what action would be taken against officers who lose their guns.

Earlier this month, inspector-general of police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar claimed that the missing guns could have “fallen into the sea”, when deflecting criticism against the police for the lack of accountability on the missing weapons.Khalid however insisted that they have checked the identification codes of the missing weapons and confirmed that they were not used for any criminal activity recently.

Ahmad Zahid himself had backed Khalid's claim, saying that “sometimes, the guns (could get) lost in operations”, and added that the police are not guilty of any malpractice.

The Auditor-General's (A-G) 2012 report, which was released on October 2, found that the police lost assets worth RM1.33 million over the past three years, including 156 units of handcuffs, 44 units of firearms, 29 vehicles, 26 walkie-talkies, 22 radios, six cameras, four computers, one cellphone, and 21 unspecified items.

The report also noted that the police’s management of missing assets was unsatisfactory, noting the late discovery of missing assets, the delay in reporting losses to the department head and to the police, the department head’s delay in preparing an initial report on the missing assets, and the delay in action following a report on missing assets.

Ahmad Zahid said in his written reply that the missing weapons comprised pistols and revolvers that fall under light weapons, but did not give the value of the missing weapons, saying that the cost differed between each weapon based on the manufacturer.

He said as a proactive measure to deal with future cases of missing weapons, the police's information technology division has started developing a framework to monitor and record all cases of missing police assets.

The system will start from the point the asset is lost up to the point where action is taken against an officer who is found to be responsible for losing the asset.

“The system is expected to start operations by November 2013 at the latest. With the system, all cases of missing police assets will be easily known by police's missing assets management secretariat,” Ahmad Zahid said.