As former Transparency International-Malaysia (TIM) president, I wish to congratulate TI-M president Akhbar Satar and secretary Dr Loi Kheng Min for TI-M’s very constructive comments on the Auditor-General’s Report and its appeal to the prime minister to take tougher action against those who have abused public trust and public funds.

The auditor-general, Ambrin Buang, himself and his gallant team deserve the full praise of the caring public, for the excellent Auditor-General’s Report once again.

However, the rakyat would be sad to note that all the auditor-general’s laudable efforts to highlight government administrative and financial weaknesses seem to be falling on deaf ears. There is still a strong recurrence of all these wasteful and corrupt practices in the public sector.

Who knows how bad it is in the private sector and indeed in the whole economy.

Hence I have the following  proposals  for the government and the auditor-general to consider and adopt, please.

1. Can there be an auditor-general’s report card that grades and ranks government ministries and departments and government-linked companies (GLCs) according to their compliance with regulations and their competencies in public administration, please?

The report card could be put on the websites for all to see and judge This will  help the government to impose higher standards.

2. Can the government give some undertaking that it will seriously consider the many sound proposals made by TI-M to improve the standards of governance in our country and give an account as to what extent it has followed the auditor-general’s advice.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) could institute such a periodic survey. Let the public appreciate the  surveillance of the PAC.

3. I would urge the government to also form and lead in a people’s movement against bad governance and corruption, to bring about more efficiency and savings to help the poor and to help alleviate inflation through reducing corruption and wastage of public funds, please.

Unless the government takes the Auditor-General’s Report more seriously and introduces more punitive action against errant staff, we will continue to hear a broken record called the ‘Auditor-General’s Continuing Woes’. This can be painful to hear and would certainly erode public confidence, please.

RAMON NAVARATNAM is former president, Transparency International-Malaysia.