(June 15): Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will summon several ministries and federal agencies following the tabling of the second series of the 2014 Auditor-General's Report today, which revealed several wastages and leakages.

PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said they will summon representatives from the Agricultural and Agro-Based Industries Ministry, the Education Ministry, Customs and Prime Minister's Department.

"We hope to call them to attend our inquiries in September," he said after a briefing with the A-G today on the second series of the report.

The A-G’s report found that the former agriculture and agro-based industries secretary-general signed an RM268,222 million contract in 2012 for a private firm despite not having the authority to do so.

The contract was issued to Sunlight Inno Seafood Sdn Bhd for its investment in a National Key Economic Area (NKEA) project called Replicating Integrated Zone for Aquaculture Model (Izaq).

It found that while Izaq was launched in 2011 with a 2020 deadline to fulfil all its objectives, only 15.8% of its objectives was complete as of December last year.

The A-G’s report also found that there were issues of improper payments for maintenance of ships and boats under the Maritime Enforcement Agency, which comes under the purview of the Prime Minister's Department.

The report also noted shortcomings in the management of an aqua culture programme under the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) as well as the management of the Sri Malaysia Hotel chain which had improper payment issues.

Additionally, the A-G’s report found shortcomings in the financial management of several public universities, which is under the Education Ministry.

PAC will call up several ministries after finding issues on maintenance budgets of government assets.

"We find that the government buys a lot of assets but does not maintain them properly. By right, there should be more budget allocated for maintenance as the years goes by but this was not done, resulting in older assets having to be disposed of," said Nur Jazlan.

He expressed shock over some of the wastage and leakage highlighted in the latest A-G’s report, especially after declaring last year that the PAC was satisfied with the improvements shown by some ministries and departments.

"We feel a bit sad. Governance is always about consistency. But what's important is we give them the message that we are watching them." – The Malaysian Insider