A federal audit on projects to supply water to the rural areas last year did not uncover any details indicating alleged corruption within the Sabah Water Department, auditor-general Ambrin Buang said today.

Ambrin told reporters that the focus of the audit at the time was on whether the projects, including in Sabah, had met its objectives in terms of the number of households supplied with clean water.

"I'm sure the Sabah Water Department was also involved (in the audit). That (audit report) was already presented to Parliament last year.

"We (only) looked at the achievement of the projects, what were its weaknesses in terms of planning and implementation," Ambrin said when met after the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) Open Government Partnership Conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

As such, Ambrin said that he is equally in the dark on details surrounding the RM3.3 billion corruption case involving top officials of the Sabah Water Department.

"I am also interested to know how they did it," he said when asked for comment on the case which had been described as MACC's biggest crackdown in history.

"This (the case) is about procurement, how they handled procurement, who handled the procurement.

"If the money came from the ministry, was it sent to a state ministry or department in Sabah? This is something we want to know."

He also added that he would let MACC complete its work before deciding whether to then follow up with an audit on the state water department.

The MACC had yesterday arrested another 19 officials from the Sabah Water Department and seized RM4.2 million in cash, after the initial arrests of its two top officers earlier this month.

The initial arrests on Oct 4 was described as MACC's biggest crackdown in history, with the seizure of about RM3 million kept in a safe in the office of one of the suspects.

Earlier in his closing speech, Ambrin also said his department had since 2014 taken tough measures to follow up on recommendations made to government departments and agencies in its annual audit reports.

In total, he said there were 159 civil servants who faced punitive actions ranging from dismissal, suspension, and the freezing of benefits.