KUALA LUMPUR – Two Finance Ministry (MoF) officials will testify before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today on issues uncovered by the Auditor-General on the Langkawi Development Authority (Lada).
They will be grilled at a PAC meeting at about 3.30pm, said committee chairman Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin (Masjid Tanah-PN) at a press conference today.
She said the two are Treasury secretary-general Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican and deputy secretary-general (Investment) Datuk Shahrazat Ahmad.
From Lada, PAC will call in deputy chief executive officer (Planning and Development) Wan Kamarul Faisal bin Wan Kamardin.
The Auditor-General’s (A-G’s) Report 2022 (Volume 1) released recently had found Lada’s performance unsatisfactory, including its failure to reach its targeted revenue in addition to weaknesses in the management of land leases.
Lada had failed to collect land lease revenue for two projects – the development of the St Regis Hotel, amounting to RM3.19 million since 2018 and the land lease for the Tok Senik village resort project, amounting to RM8.3 million since 2013.
These failures could see Lada risk the loss of revenue estimated at RM11.49 million as well as the loss of the land lease.
HRD Corp directors to be called
Mas Ermieyati said PAC will also discuss the management and finances of the Human Resources Development Corporation (HRD Corp) on December 6, with HRD Corp board of directors’ members Datuk Raiha Azni Abd Rahman and Datuk Palaniappan Joseph to be called as witnesses.
So far, PAC has held five proceedings on this topic involving witnesses including HRD Corp chief executive Datuk Shahul Dawood, Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar, and the line-up of HRD Corp board of directors for the 2022 session.
From October 9 to date (November 30), PAC had conducted nine proceedings and tabled four reports, with topics including the littoral combatant ships (LCS) for Royal Malaysian Navy under the Defence Ministry (Mindef) (14 November); Covid-19 management on expired vaccine, defective ventilators, and excess personal protective equipment under the Health Ministry (October 30); social agreement under National Paddy and Rice Management of the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry (October 11), and on the second LCS vessel under Mindef (October 9).
Additionally, PAC will be holding seven proceedings following the release of the A-G’s Report 2022 throughout December until next year.
Topics that will be covered are the Integrated Foreign Workers Management (ePPAx) and Foreign Workers Centralised Management System (FWCMS) (December 5); Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) – UiTM Holdings Sdn Bhd (December 6); special audit of forest management and environmental impact (December 12); management of the Rice Planting Programme (December 13).
The other two PAC proceedings – covering the National Flood Forecasting and Warning Programme, as well as the management of upgrade and repair of dilapidated schools – will be held next year.
“PAC will be holding feedback proceedings for all these reports to learn the actions to be taken by these ministries – based on recommendations that will be presented soon – to (allow PAC to) present follow-up action reports that contain the ministries’ feedbacks on PAC’s recommendations in the Parliament.
“PAC also plans to hold these proceedings in January 2024 and present all feedback reports during the Dewan Rakyat session in February 2024,” Mas Ermieyati said.
She added that the committee aims to solve all seven topics taken from the A-G’s Report 2022 before the first meeting of the third session begins. – November 30, 2023
 released recently had found Lada’s performance unsatisfactory, including its failure to reach its targeted revenue in addition to weaknesses in the management of land leases. ){kind=link}