By James Kon

INCIDENCE of weak management of government properties and finance, inefficiency and misuse in various departments have cost the government at least B$190 million according to audited figures.

The audit findings came from a total of 356 reports issued between year 2003 until March 2009 not including the accounts of government’s own companies and Statutory bodies.

The figure is believed to be even bigger if the Audit Department can perform audit in all ministries and departments including high commissions, embassies, permanent representatives and Consul Generals that amounted to I80 organisations.

This was revealed by Pengiran Alit bin Pengiran Haji Damit, the Acting Assistant Senior Auditor General during the presentation at a workshop on implementing internal audit for the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health and departments under these ministries at the Civil Service Institute yesterday.

Outlining the identified weaknesses in various ministries and departments, he pointed out unorganised store management ($73,353,402.82), claims that have yet to be cleared ($66,383,400.75), inefficiency management of rented houses ($30,279,340.96), inefficient project management ($8,135,965.42), and unorganised expenditure ($7,854,438.96).

Other weaknesses include the misuse of earning ($I,400,740.I5), Unorganised management of salaries and allowances ($1,082,139.08), deposits yet to be returned ($927,089.75) and mishandling of expenditure ($702,410.27).

With the staggering figure, internal audit needs to review and improve the management of government’s properties and finance, Datin Hajah Norlina binti Dato Hj Abu Bakar, the Acting Auditor General said, “The Audit Department in its efforts to effectively implement internal audit, has taken the initiative to set up guidelines of implementing internal audit for ministries and departments to help facilitate the work of internal audit unit.”

“These guidelines will steer the internal audit unit to follow normal processes in auditing works. For the early stage, Audit Department will focus on three accounts which are deemed simple for each Internal Audit Unit namely, cash and earning account, salary and allowance account as well as stores and expenditure accounts in all ministries and departments,” she added.

“This guideline has been designed to prepare a list of easy questions aimed at providing basic skills in ac
cordance with the capability of the technical officers and staff of the internal audit unit.

“To better grasp the guidelines, the Audit Department has organised talks and workshops delivered by officers from the department. The implementation of internal audit will be monitored through reports that need to be forwarded every three months to be reviewed by the Audit Department to identify the performance of each ministries and departments.”

Some eighty personnel from the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health attended the workshop and talk.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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