PUTRAJAYA, March 21 — All secretaries-general should be fully aware of every financial transaction within their ministries, Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Ali Hamsa said today amid a RM100 million corruption probe on the Youth and Sports Ministry.
Ali was responding to Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who earlier today said the alleged misappropriation of funds happened due to a loophole where some transactions were allowed without requiring the approval of either the relevant minister or the ministry’s secretary-general.
“As the chief controller, the KSU should know about all amounts involved, so that’s why I will wait for the report of the Auditor-General.
“Because the KSU is the controlling officer so he will know about the allocation given and the expenditure in the ministry,” Ali said, using the Malay abbreviation for secretary-general.
He was asked about the threshold amount that did not require the signature of either the minister or secretary-general.
Pressed to elaborate, Ali only said: “We don’t know, without prejudice, maybe there were senior officers who were misled or something. We are not sure, we will wait for the report”.
Later Ali said that the secretaries-general are in charge of receiving allocations for the ministries’ operational and development expenditure, but that payment for projects are done by officers at the finance division or development division.
“That is what I want to find out, whether did they go back to the financial controller or not, we will have to wait and see,” he said.
Other aspects to be scrutinised included how the vouchers were made and whether or not the transactions went through the financial controller.
When asked how the alleged corruption could have gone on undetected since 2010, Ali said an audit by the Auditor-General on the ministry may reveal the answer.
“This question may be answered in the Auditor-General’s special report, we have to see from the paper trail, it involves two specific agencies - the ministry and its agency National Sports Council. That is also the question that we have, the Auditor-General also has the same question,” the top civil servant said.
Ali noted that the alleged corruption had gone on for six years despite internal audits and the presence of integrity officers.
Because of this, he said ministerial processes must be reviewed.
He also said general conclusions on whether the Youth and Sports Ministry’s current and former secretary-general should be held responsible for the alleged fiasco cannot be made now, pointing out that it would depend on investigations including whether they were misled.
Last Friday, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) arrested a 56-year-old senior official from the Youth and Sports Ministry suspected of embezzling an estimated RM100 million over the past six years.
Among the assets seized from the suspect valued at about RM20 million, were 12 vehicles, designer handbags and jewellery. Some 69 bank accounts containing RM8.3 million were also frozen.
