Govt agencies show better financial management, says Auditor-General

(Bernama) – KUALA LUMPUR: Government agencies have shown better financial management performance for the year 2010 compared to the previous year.

In a statement during the presentation of the 2010 Auditor General’s Report at Dewan Rakyat, the National Audit Department said 357 government agencies were audited last year and 77 of them attained the “very good” rating compared to only 48 out 399 given the same ranking in 2009.

“The significant improvement signifies that the implementation of the Accountability Index (AI) proved to be an incentive to heads of departments and agencies to pay more attention to financial management,” the department said.

The department implemented the AI-based audit rating system in 2007 divided into mandatory and rotational categories to assess the extent of government agencies’ financial management compliance with statutory laws and regulations.

The statement added that 368 out of 453 audited annual financial statements were given audit certificates without a reprimand in 2010, meaning they were completely satisfactory.

Thirty-three financial statements were issued certificates with reprimand as the auditor was dissatisfied with certain aspects of the statements.

In comparison, 357 financial statements were issued certificates without a reprimand and 25 with certificates with a reprimand in the year 2009, it said. BERNAMA