AG's report: All 25 ministries performed well in 2016

PETALING JAYA: The RM212.421 billion revenue received by the federal government in 2016 saw a decrease of RM6.668 billion, from RM219.089 billion in 2015.
Auditor-General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad said the federal government also incurred a deficit of RM38.4 billion.
"This deficit was financed by internal and external loans amounting to RM99.859 billion. Apart from financing development expenditure, the loans were also used to repay the existing debts and finance the Housing Loan Trust Fund," she said in her report.
Madinah said in general the financial management performance of the federal ministries in 2016 have improved compared to previous years.
She said all 25 ministries (100%) were rated as excellent compared to 16 out of 25 ministries (64%) in
2015 and 20 out of 24 ministries (83.3%) in 2014.
She added that the performance of the financial management audit conducted annually in 18 federal departments have also improved.
"In 2016, 16 departments (88.89%) were rated as Excellent and two were rated Good. Whereas the performance for 38 Federal Statutory Bodies that were audited on a three-year cycle basis, showed that 16 agencies (39.5%) were rated Excellent, 19 agencies (52.6%) were Good and three agencies (7.9%) were rated Satisfactory," she said.
Madinah said department heads should conduct comprehensive checks to determine whether weaknesses highlighted by her department also occurred in other departments.
She said department heads should be hands on in their approach on financial matters and they can enhance the effectiveness of internal audits by ensuring internal auditors are given sufficient training and guidance.
The auditor-general said every exit conference with her department should be chaired by the respective secretary-generals or department heads, so that they are informed on audit issues beforehand to enable appropriate action to be urgently taken apart from making improvements.
Madinah said department heads should establish a check and balance system, whereby job rotation, close supervision, surprise checks and periodic assessment on officers' skills and competencies are carried out.
She added that training should also be conducted to enhance the skills of officers to avoid incompetent and less knowledgeable officers making decisions at their discretion.