Ask questions, says Shahrir

The Star

By MANJIT KAUR

KUALA LUMPUR: One way to encourage accountability of where the public's money was being used is by asking questions and ensuring an answer is provided.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad said writing as many letters to government departments and the ministries concerned is one way to get answers to questions that are lingering on one's mind.

Shahrir said it did not matter if he was flooded with letters as his priority was to investigate the content of the letters.

"This process has to start. If we don't do this, the situation will be back to square one,'' he added.

He was speaking at a public talk entitled '90 days after Auditor-General's report, what next?' organised by a non-government organisation called Empower on Tuesday night.

Shahrir said, prior to the directive by the Prime Minister that the Auditor-General's department will conduct an internal audit of government departments and agencies, the audit was conducted by "people" from within the departments or agencies.

"This is one change that we can see after the AG's report was made public.

"Although many may find the report shocking, we must commend the AG for revealing this information, and the Government for making changes,'' he said.