Why the cloak-and-dagger routine?

If the public funds were to be mismanaged or abused by corrupted politicians, public officials and their cronies, the investigations into such irregularities should be out in the open because these matters are of public interest.

WH Cheng, Berita Daily

First of all, why must members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) be gagged and not allowed to issue any statements pertaining to the committee’s ongoing investigations or hearings on the government’s financial irregularities?

Is PAC functioning in secrecy or is it some sort of a secret society? Why all inquiries carried out by the PAC should not be made public and the people are being prevented from knowing its proceedings?

If the leaders of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition keep on insisting that PAC’s probes into the financial irregularities in the public service as well as government-linked-companies (GLCs) should not be disclosed to the people, then can only assume that they want to cover-up the misdeeds and wrongdoings within the government.

No wonder the BN government’s budget deficit is increasing every year and they keep on losing billions of ringgit of public funds to power abuse, mismanagement and corruptions.

Let us talk facts! We, the people, most of us are taxpayers, contribute much of our hard-earned income to the government every year in the form of income tax and GST.

The monies that we all remit to the government are for development and the benefit of our people. It is considered public funds and does not belong to anyone in power.

The government is merely entrusted to manage these funds in accordance to the will of the people.

Therefore, if the public funds were to be mismanaged or abused by corrupted politicians, public officials and their cronies, the investigations into such irregularities should be out in the open because these matters are of public interest.

PAC is a parliamentary committee

The PAC is not a cabinet committee where all its proceedings are kept secret. The PAC is established among members of parliament from both sides of the political divide and is a parliamentary committee.

All MPs be it from the government or opposition are elected by the people, as such, any task, responsibilities or investigations undertaken by the PAC should be made public.

In fact, when an irregularity within the government is reported, the PAC should summon the minister concerned, public officials of the said department, agency and the CEO of the GLC involved to an open and public hearing instead of a close-door meeting.

Keeping all its proceedings a secret is not a parliamentary way to investigate any mismanagement or abuse of public funds. Unless the ruling BN really got something to hide from the public.

The other issue here, is the PAC really independent in its functions, responsibilities and decision-making? Are they really acting based on parliamentary sense of honour?

What we know today is that BN MPs in the PAC are merely followers who are just following the instructions of their party leaders.

Now, when it comes to investigating the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). PAC should also focus to see if there are any criminal nature of the debts accrued. on why such a scandal had taken place, what were the procedures that were not followed, who did the wrong thing, who should be reprimanded, actions to be taken, and what are the preventive measures to be regulated as well as what should be implemented after all these mess.

The PAC should discharge its roles and responsibilities to the best of the people’s interest.

If the PAC continues to function in secrecy, its members gagged and warned against any public disclosures, having all its information and proceedings conceived from the public, PAC can just close shop and let a cabinet committee handle all its roles.

At the end of the day, there is no point in having this PAC in the first place.