Hold ministers accountable

Posted on 30 October 2011 - 05:25pm
Last updated on 30 October 2011 - 07:59pm

R. Nadeswaran

FOR the past week, the Auditor-General's (AG) Report has made the headlines as it usually does in this annual affair. For a good two weeks, everyone has a field day, expressing his or her judgment, opinion, verdict and even "convict" the wrongdoers merely based on that voluminous report which is tabled in Parliament. After that, everything is forgotten and we wait with bated breath for next year's edition.
Year in, year out, we hear the same problems of overspending, excessive spending and failure to adhere to procedures. Occasionally, a few are hauled up before the courts and that's the last we hear of them.
This time, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission says it has opened 27 files following the AG's report and the deputy finance minister has "warned of firm action against government officers and staff found to have misused allocations or disregarded expenditure procedures." Haven't we heard it all before?
What he failed to add is "ministers and deputy ministers". In the course of our work, we have often questioned the wisdom of spending large sums of money on extravagant and non-beneficial projects and the common answer has been: "Tanya mentri-lah. Dia yang beri arahan." (You have to ask the minister. The instruction came from him or her.)
You don't have to look far to find examples and the Sports Ministry comes to mind. The paying of RM17 million for the World Youth Cup five years ago and the allocation of RM6 million for the 2008 Women's Games are two good examples.
All those involved including the secretary-general and the directors washed their hands saying that they had followed lawful instructions. This time around, money allocated for development was spent on advertisements and one wonders what the ministry was advertising – branded goods or massage services?
And there are scores more which we can talk about including paying one Ummi Hafildah a sum of RM300,000 as an advance for a concert by an Egyptian singer. What a concert has to do with tourism is best left to the imagination of the reader, but let's get the issue in perspective.
Time and time again, the chief secretary to the government has reminded civil servants to stand up to ministers if they want something done which is not according to regulations. However, sad to say, such reminders have fallen on deaf ears.
It is certainly not Hobson's choice. If they don't follow the minister's directive, they end up in his or her bad books. If they do, they will apologetically explain to the chief secretary that they could not refuse a lawful instruction.
It can be summed up as the failure of the system and the blurring of the concept of separation of powers. Theoretically, there is a thick line between the powers of the legislative and the executive branches, but over the years, the division has somewhat disappeared and the branches have become fused. So much so, the lawmakers seem to be making administrative decisions, thus usurping the powers of the civil servants.
The problem seems to be that the time-tested system which has been practised in the past has been systematically dismantled for political expediency which in turn has cost the rakyat billions. It has been reported that even the supply of flowers and grass cutting contracts in at least one authority was decided by the minister.
With members of the legislature poking their fingers into administrative matters especially the procurement of goods and services, there will be no end to misuse and abuse of government funds.
Going by the deputy minister's statement, how are the authorities going to take action against civil servants if the latter were merely following instructions? The answer lies in a prime ministerial directive that no politician should be involved or should use his or her influence when it comes to procurement.
They should allow the civil servants to follow the principles and the procedures laid down by the Treasury instead of getting involved in day-to-day running of the ministry. Don't forget that ministers formulate policies and the civil servants implement them.
If the implementation of the policies is not satisfactory, then the ministers can demand an explanation from those charged with the implementation. But if ministers choose to be implementers and if things do go wrong as has been pointed out by the AG, should we hold the civil servants responsible?
R. Nadeswaran says civil servants should blow the whistle on those who interfere in the effective running of their ministries. He is theSun's UK correspondent and can be reached at: citizen-nades@thesundaily.com