Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng slammed the BN-led federal government for not being "hungry" enough to expose corruption.

 

"But it appears to be hungry for more corruption," he quipped, at a forum co-organised by thinktank Penang Institute and anti-corruption watchdog C4, titled ‘Government Audit: Accountability or Formality?’ last night.

 

C4 is the acronym for the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism, a Kuala Lumpur-based initiative formed a year ago.

 

"We hope to see a white knight in the auditor-general ( below ) to slay the ‘vampire’ of corruption before these vampires suck the nation's finances dry," he said in his speech.

 

"As for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), many are still wondering when is MACC going to step up and be like its counterpart in Hong Kong, instead of being a mere shadow of itself," he stressed.

 

MACC legal advisor Han Chee Rull, Public accountability committee chairperson Nur Jazlan Mohamed, and DAP’s Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim were speakers for the forum chaired by C4 director Cynthia Gabriel.

 

Lim found it perplexing to see that the auditor-general is still refusing to open the books on the controversial 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which has been in recent news for alleged financial mismanagement.

 

Auditor-general can ‘save the nation’

 

He said this was one area that the auditor-general can remedy and "save the nation from suffering horrendous losses".

 

“In other words preventing another scandal that is three times (that of) the Port Klang FTZ scandal,” he added.

 

"The question all Malaysians are asking is: with leakage after leakage and scandal after scandal that have been revealed by the auditor-general’s reports, is the audit process itself effective to curb weak and often disingenuous fiscal management of the government, or is it a mere formality?" Lim asked.

 

"The fact is that there is a lack of political will from the federal government to plug these leakages of public funds or to recoup the losses," he claimed.

 

"Structural weaknesses in fiscal and project management have not been corrected and conducts bordering on abuse of power and corruption are left unaddressed," Lim stressed.

 

Lim said the MACC has failed to answer serious issues of public accountability on scandals ranging from the extraordinary wealth of former Sarawak chief minister Taib Mahmud's family, the 1MDB and PKFZ saga, or the RM1.4 trillion of illicit funds flowing out of the country from 2003-2013.

 

The sum RM1.4 trillion, he added, had cost each Malaysian citizen RM50,000.

 

"Are we going to lose another RM50,000 each before MACC acts?" Lim said, rasing the issue of culprits often being able to act with impunity.

 

Checking excess and abuse

 

Out of 175 civil servants implicated in financial wrongdoings by the AG’s 2012 report, only one was sacked, even though 85 were found guilty, he added.

 

Lim said a number of them were referred for further disciplinary action but it would appear that such actions have not deterred further excesses and abuses from happening.

 

"What about KLIA2 which ballooned from an initial cost of RM1.6 billion to RM4 billion?

 

"Why not press for public declaration of assets of government leaders as practised by the Penang state government, which is a norm in many corrupt-free countries?

 

"The MACC is certainly in a better position than me to respond to such concerns," he said.

 

Lim said this is why the auditor-general’s report must not be treated as mere formality, but instead be given due attention in order to improve governance for the rakyat.