KUALA LUMPUR, 24 Oct: The Chief Secretary to the Government (Ketua Setiausaha Negara, KSN) and respective Secretaries-General (Ketua Setiausaha, KSUs) should prepare an action plan to rectify leakages and wastages as announced in the Auditor-General’s Report.
The Pakatan Rakyat Budget 2014 proposes several steps to be taken to ensure an adequate follow-up to the report findings and recommended measures to address any issues or close any gaps.
These can be done at the annual meeting between the KSN and KSUs by establishing a committee of task force at the ministry level, headed by the respective KSUs, and targets to remove wastages and leakages.
The committee’s scope would include identifying and closing gaps in terms of reducing redundant processes, increasing efficiency of the system with the outcome of closing systemic opportunities for possible leakages.
Government department should review the levels of authorities, and re-define the level of empowerment and responsibilities at the various authority levels.
Guidelines or governance documents that govern the workings and processes for each ministry must be reviewed to include the lowest level of authority to ensure that gaps are effectively addressed.
The results are then measured against the targets set earlier and presented in Parliament by respective ministers who are held accountable for the targets, before being disclosed to the public for scrutiny.