If you care to follow and listen closely to the news, these terms - ‘up to’, ‘waiting for’ and ‘it depends’ are now the ‘favourite terminologies’ of Malaysia’s public administration.

I do not know whether this is evading responsibilities or avoiding making hard decisions, but many important agencies in the government appear to be waiting for each other.  We have the police waiting for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). We have MACC waiting for the police. We have MACC and the police waiting for the attorney-general.  

Now the circle is getting wider. We now have the police, the MACC and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) saying it is “up to” the auditor-general. Next, may be it will be the auditor-general, the police, and MACC waiting for the attoeney-general. Soon, Bank Negara Malaysia, too, will be waiting for someone or vice versa. You are free to think of any other permutation if you wish.

What is the point I am making here? We have so many agencies, with each having its own tasks and responsibilities. Since when, for example, are the actions of the police or MACC incumbent upon the auditor-general’s findings and reports? Are we saying if there is no audit report, there is no crime and no corruption?   

When we are investigating crimes, whose expertise shall we rely on if not the police? If we want to find out whether or not corruption and abuse of power have taken place, whose expertise shall we depend on if not MACC? If we want to investigate violation of foreign exchange rules, money-laundering, offshore loans and placements, whose expertise shall we call upon if not Bank Negara Malaysia?   

Specific expertise aside, what about the credential and the authority to investigate? Can the Audit Department move as freely and as authoritatively as the police, the MACC, and Bank Negara Malaysia?

Why should there be one agency waiting for another when the areas, the angles and the issues to be investigated on are different.

I believe different agencies are set up with different objectives and responsibilities. With their own terms of reference, all relevant agencies should rightly begin their own investigation, independently and simultaneously. It defies logic one agency should wait for the other. With due respect to the auditor-general and the Audit Department, they are not supermen. They do not have all the authorities and expertise to do all.