KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — The National Film Development Corporation (Finas) has no excuse for its poor financial management as it has been a statutory body for more than three decades, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chief Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said.

At a press conference here, Nur Jazlan noted, however, that the film corporation has given its commitment to improve its financial management and corporate governance.

“It shouldn’t have happened but it still did and the secretary-generals have also since retired,” said Nur Jazlan.

“They have been audited by external auditors for 30-odd years. This is first time I’ve heard of the accounts of a statutory body being stated as qualified, which means the auditors cannot give a fair and true view of their books,” he said.

The parliament’s powerful committee had taken Finas to task over its “patchy and inconsistent” financial management, which had resulted in the auditor-general issuing varying audit certifications to the corporation in the 2012 national audit report.

“In 2012, the merger of Finas and National Film Department (NFD) wasn’t well-planned financially and it subsequently resulted in a snag as the corporation tried to merge two different accounting systems — Finas is using accrual accounting while the NFD used cash accounting like all government agencies,” Nur Jazlan explained.

“But the government agency is going to change to the accrual accounting system next year to be standardised with the current trend.”

In January, Nur Jazlan, who is also the Pulai MP, proposed that Finas stopped engaging outside talent and choose to source from government agencies instead after reports emerged that the Najib administration’s had spent RM7.2 billion to hire private consultants since 2009 for their expertise on national projects.

Present today at the PAC hearing were Finas’ former director-generals Datuk Seri Kamaruddin Siaraf, Datuk Mohd Mahyidin Mastaqim and and Naguib Razak, together with the body’s current director general Raja Rozainie Raja Dalnish Shah.

Nur Jazlan insisted that the film board’s spotty records did not indicate corruption, but warned that if ignored, the problem could result in leakages.

“It’s merely a weakness in managing their financial systems and lack of accountants to undertake the work,” he said, adding that more vigilance is required.

Finas, which is under the purview of the Communication and Multimedia Ministry, is annually allocated a budget of RM40 million.