KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 — The police’s loss of 44 firearms is relatively few and does not justify further investigation, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said today.
Citing the Auditor-General’s 2012 report, Nur Jazlan stressed that only 44 guns were lost in the space of three years from 2010 to 2012, saying that such losses were inevitable in the course of the police force’s duty.
“Looking at the number overall, the number of handguns lost is actually quite small in terms of overall number of firearms being deployed,” the Pulai MP told reporters after a PAC session in Parliament here.
“It’s not significant, in audit terms, it’s not significant to us to warrant further investigation,” he added.
Nur Jazlan also said ballistic tests ― which match bullets to guns from which they are fired from ― had shown that none of the firearms lost by the police were used in criminal cases.
But while accepting the number of guns lost as “tolerable”, he also said the goal now is to further reduce the loss of firearms.
The PAC session today was on the management of the loss of government assets and was attended by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Mohamad Khalid Hj Shariff and the police force’s logistics department chief Datuk Zulkifli Abdullah.
Last October, the Auditor-General’s Report 2012 revealed that between 2010 and 2012, the police lost RM1.33 million worth of assets including 156 units of handcuffs, 44 firearms, 29 vehicles.
Other items listed as lost in the report are 26 walkie-talkies, 22 radios, six cameras, four computers, one cellphone, and 21 unspecified items.
But after the PAC session today, Nur Jazlan indicated satisfaction with the steps that had been taken, adding that the police chief himself “has taken the responsibility to push for changes in terms of procedures, system and resources”.
“Overall, I think PAC is satisfied with the ministry, PDRM’s actions in strengthening asset management,” he said.
According to Nur Jazlan, the police force had already implemented three monitoring systems - PDRM Assets Loss Management System (PALMS), MYSPATA, MYSPA ― in response to the findings in the AG Report.
“These systems will be put in to monitor the whole inventory of assets in the police force whether it is immovable assets like officers, land, police station or movable assets like cars, pistols, handcuffs,” he explained.
In today’s session today, the PAC also looked into allocation of funds for police equipment, Nur Jazlan said.
He said that many of the police force’s vehicles were nearing the end of their life, saying that it would cost too much to replace all of them and the suggestion to lease vehicles was raised during the session.
