Call for more audits
ABOUT 10 months after the Media Development Authority (MDA) was
criticised for being tardy, it refunded to radio and TV owners all
the excess licence fees it had collected from them.
The amount was more than $6million.
Similarly, the Education Ministry, which was chided for unfairly
rejecting some lower bids for school cleaning contracts, has
introduced guidelines on how civil servants are to evaluate
tenders.
These improvements were noted by a parliamentary committee that
tracks what government ministries and statutory boards have done to
correct irregularities in the use of public funds identified by the
Auditor-General (A-G) in his 2008/09 report last July.
But more can be done, said the watchdog Public Accounts
Committee (PAC), made up of eight MPs, in its annual report
yesterday.
It wants the A-G to audit more often those showing many lapses,
recommending that he pore over their financial accounts at least
once in two to three years, instead of the usual once every seven
years.
-- ST
