The Civil Service is a very lucrative vocation with 100 million Ringgit leaked from just one insignificant ministry

By MT Webmaster On Mar 22, 2016

Umar Mukhtar

If a Setiausaha Bahagian of an insignificant ministry can create false projects for him to covertly collect up to 100 million Ringgit, obviously there is something terribly wrong with the disbursement system of the civil service.

And the fact that they were committed beyond a number of audit periods, the Auditor-General has a lot of explaining to do. Bearing in mind that these were not cases of forgeries where the A-G’s men can perhaps overlook the authenticity of a signature, normally the work of professional forgers. But these were payments for fictitious project expenses, supposedly physical stuff which could be physically checked?

Nobody from the Ministry of Finance did the usual checks? The Ketua Setiausaha who is normally a sort of chief executive of the said ministry had his eyes off the ball? He was not really interested in his work? He had eyes only for golf balls? And karaoke girls?

Let’s not focus on the thieves. I know it makes good copy to show how the millions were spent, usually on crap typically bought by money not earned. People who work hard for their money don’t do these silly stuff with their hard-earned money. Remember the lowly naval officer driving some exotic cars. Remember the naval ships catching fire to dispose of evidence? Remember the seventeen safes In the house of a political secretary to a minister?

Whatever were the follow-ups of these gaps in scrutiny on the flow of government (OUR) funds? My worry is that these are just tips of the iceberg. The Setiausaha Bahagians of a particular ministry strut around like kings with contractors catering to their every whims. It would be comforting to know if these jerks are now shitting in their pants.

But chances are they know these will blow over. Could it be that the ministries’ SUBs get to do the fictitious stuff like the above because Treasury officials are busy paddling their own canoes? The MACC were probably tipped off by the conspicuous consumption of these crooks whose ill-gotten money were burning holes in their pockets. Why no tips before this? An apathetic public? An impotent MACC? An accepted culture that thieves are smart ones?

Heads must roll, right from the Ketua Pengarah of Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam, the Ketua Setiausaha of the Ministry of Finance to the Comptrollers of any sort. We should not be concerned just with the crooks; they’re just the plenty of stupid people who are needy. They will have to deal with their Maker. I am just curious how many times he went to perform the Umrah! We are also concerned with the sleeping jagas with high salaries and fat perks.

This is not to be taken lightly. When Lee Kuan Yew took over the Singapore government, the first thing he did was to revamp the Civil Service. Maybe that should be done here and rid ourselves of balls-carrying courtesans of self-serving politicians.

As a rule of thumb, only twenty percent of the loot is recovered. Most have gone to third parties like unsuspecting (?) children, uncles and siblings. The people deserve to be concretely assumed that this won’t happen again. We cannot afford the leakages. MACC must be allowed to do their job and whistle-blowers should not be viewed as negatively as they are now.

Or else Malaysia would be truly regressing from a democracy to a kleptocracy to a failed state when all the wealth are gone. Que sera sera. Those with the loot will scoot.

Umar Mukhtar