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Oleh/By : DATO SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : PALACE OF THE GOLDEN HORSES,
KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 07/10/2002
Tajuk/Title : THE 18TH COMMONWEALTH
AUDITORS-GENERAL CONFERENCE
Versi : ENGLISH
Penyampai : PM
It is indeed a pleasure and honour for me to be amongst
the Auditors-General of the Commonwealth today and to
officially open the 18th Commonwealth Auditors-General
Conference, the first in the new millennium.
2. On behalf of the Government of Malaysia, I would
like to extend my warmest welcome and I hope that you
will have an enjoyable and memorable stay in this
country.
3. I would like to take this opportunity to
congratulate all of you particularly the organiser for
choosing a theme, which is very relevant and timely,
"Re-engineering Auditing In The Public Sector". I am
also pleased to note that your deliberation will cover
topical issues which require you as "watch dog" to the
government to reflect on your role in order to remain
relevant as well as contribute pro actively in achieving
the goals and aspirations of the government of the day
working in the interest of the country and the people,
without sacrificing your professionalism.
4. I am very confident that this congregation of
auditors from both developed and developing countries of
the Commonwealth will be able to come out with concrete
ideas which will contribute towards the reforms of
auditing practices and standards required in a world
dealing with huge sums of money expanded rapidly. I
believe your discussion for the next two days would be a
very stimulating and fruitful one and will contribute to
the professional development of auditing in the
Commonwealth.
5. In the last few years we have heard a lot about
auditors and auditing. They are not really good news.
Accounting firms auditing the accounts of large
corporations had allowed themselves to be influenced by
their clients. I need not elaborate because it is
public knowledge. However, it underlines the need for
ethics and responsibility on the part of auditors in
general. Countries can go bankrupt unless accounting
and auditing standards are above reproach. And
countries, though they may be smaller than many of the
large corporations in terms of funds, are far too
important to be allowed to go bankrupt. Governments
can often take care of their people distressed by the
failure of business but no one can look after the people
when Governments fail. We have seen this happen to a
number of countries lately.
6. There is a need to reiterate and emphasise the
importance of managing the monies of a Government. Much
of the management of a country's treasury must be left
to the civil servants. They must therefore be skilled
in this field. Such skills do not come naturally. They
have to be trained and to be exposed to the best
practices and system for the management of funds. And
the auditors of course have a duty not just to audit the
management but also to guide and in many instances to
teach the proper methods and systems in this field.
7. The auditors themselves need to develop auditing
skills and know best practices. Which is why a
conference such as this, involving the auditors of
Commonwealth countries is very important.
8. Commonwealth auditors must have inherited much of
the practices from the British. There is therefore a
commonality which enables Commonwealth auditors to
understand each other's practices and methods. Without
doubt they have learnt much and accepted the practices
of those outside the Commonwealth. This is necessary
because the practices in many countries must have
changed over the years and now by the advancement in
computer technology and usage. The old manual scanning
figures to detect discrepancies can now be done in a
jiffy by computers programmed to do so.
9. Speed is obviously essential and the computer
provides speed in the detection of differences in the
accounting which may indicate wrong accounting or
misappropriations. Computers can establish and
recognise the pattern of spending better than humans,
who may not see the big picture. And since the computer
can do this speedily, auditors can actually audit
continuously, thus keeping the accounting records and
the practices of the managers of funds on their toes.
We do not want to close the stable doors after the
horses have bolted.
10. The Electronic Government is one of seven I.T.
flagships introduced by the Malaysian Government in
order to provide a more efficient and effective civil
service in the information age. It will employ
multimedia technologies in the administrative
environment for the efficient delivery of government
services through new delivery channels. Currently a
number of public services are already made available
through the web-based delivery channels. Bills are now
paid promptly upon receipt of invoices. There are no
more hard copies of vouchers and cheques. Procurement
and payment process is done through the computer ending
in an electronic fund transfer to the vendors and
suppliers' bank accounts. While the benefits from this
change will be tremendous, large amounts of public funds
have to be invested in these new technologies and the
returns are not immediate. Besides the success of these
new government processes, systems and operations largely
depends on the readiness of the public to accept new
technologies.
11. In such an environment, audit as an integral part
of the government machinery responsible for independent
scrutiny and reporting on financial performance and
operations will need to reform and adjust to the
changing needs and demands of the electronic environment
in order to remain relevant and credible.
12. Auditors have now to master the computer and
develop software in order to maximise the advantage
offered by the computers. Against the new structured
economy, new ethics and new forms of risks will surface
along the way and this will surely be of concern to
auditors. There is a need for you to re-engineer your
audit methodology and techniques to accommodate these
changes taking place in the manner government provide
services under the ICT environment.
13. While your roles are expanding considerably, the
underlying commitment of the profession to maintain
excellence and integrity in every task should not be
forgotten. Auditors have been looked upon as the
guardians of financial truth and setters of due-
diligence standards. To achieve this unfailingly, the
profession's transparency and integrity must be beyond
doubt. Auditors must remain inquisitive, sceptical and
rigorous in their application of the higher standards.
14. It is also inevitable for the auditing profession
to be ahead in a new dimension upgrading services and
adding value. The major concern now is no longer the
percentage of audit coverage but the quality of audit.
Historical findings are being phased out and replaced by
viable, specific and value added ideas. Audit reports
should recognise the importance of good quality
assurance and foresight. In addition, Audit reports
will only lend credibility if there is uncompromised
independence for the Auditor-General supported by
professional competence in his office.
15. I would like to urge the Auditors-General to take
cognisance of what independence is all about in relation
to professionalism in public sector auditing and
reporting. An Auditor-General very often in the course
of discharging his duties becomes privy to highly
confidential matters or even secrets pertaining to
national defence or national economy. Reporting for the
sake of public excitement and sensationalising certain
issues should be avoided. The Auditor General should
exercise professional judgment to weigh the pros and
cons of disclosing such matters to the public, as the
repercussions may be far-reaching and detrimental to the
long-term interests of the nation as a whole.
16. Auditors have the advantage of hindsight, because
you have been doing post-audit programmes and activities
that have been implemented. Your main focus is on
weaknesses or problematic programmes and activities.
The public is entitled to know how funds are being
expended or misapplied. What then is balanced and fair
reporting in the context of today's public sector
auditing could be food for thought in this conference.
17. Your mandate is to audit the management of the
funds of your respective governments. The Government
decides on how public money is to be spent and this is
detailed in the budget. The Government maybe wise or
unwise in the allocation of funds. That is for the
people through their representatives to debate. But the
auditors must be concerned not with the policies or
allocations by the Government but with the proper
administration of the budget and the funds. Government
have certain procedures which have to be adhered to by
the civil servants, including the records of
transactions which have to be kept. The duty of the
auditors is to check and see that funds are properly
managed in accordance with procedures and allocations.
It is of course the duty of auditors to note and report
on any deviation in the administration of funds in
particular on record keeping which must always be up-to-
date. Today using computers linked to each other, it is
possible for the officers disbursing or receiving
payments to make immediate record which can be noted by
senior and other officers. Nothing is more important in
the management of money than the immediate recording of
all transactions.
18. Lessons learnt from the 1997 global economic
downturn clearly indicate that countries cannot and
could not survive in isolation, and neither could they
be over-dependent on the international financial regime
that exists. Malaysia had reasons to ignore the norm in
the management of its finances. But we are transparent
and all now admit that our unorthodox methods yielded
results. Today we are financially sound, holding large
reserves and savings. There is no black market in the
Malaysian Ringgit, which there would be if there is
doubt about our accounting and our records. We have
submitted fully to auditing. We do not regard auditors
as our nemesis. Indeed the Government looks to the
auditors to ensure that the public is well-served by the
Government.
19. Malaysia and many countries in East Asia have been
accused of incompetency, corruption, cronyism and
lacking in transparency. In fact all these were said to
be the causes for our currencies devaluation and
financial turmoil. We admit that there is always some
corruption and what may be described as cronyism. The
unfortunate thing is that these accusations are made for
political reasons i.e. in order to promote some and
denigrate some people in the Government. In the
interest of politics, the facts are often distorted or
ignored. If indeed the people accused of corruption and
cronyism are truly guilty, can they pull the country out
of the recession and financial turmoil, to put it back
on the path of growth? Auditors are in a position to
verify the facts for themselves and the public. I hope
auditors will always ignore populist politics and
conscientiously audit the accounts as professionals. As
much as they should not be influenced by their clients,
the management for example, they should not pander to
the wishes of the people outside, the media included, to
prove that certain parties are guilty. That is what
professionalism is about.
20. Finally, may I once again congratulate the
organisers and all delegates for successfully organising
this conference and I hope that the outcome of this
conference will benefit all Auditors-General of the
Commonwealth.
21. On that note, I hereby declare open the 18th
Commonwealth Auditors-General Conference.
Sumber : Pejabat Perdana Menteri
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