Abdul Karim: More efforts to be made to improve financial management of Museum Department

August 2, 2017

KUCHING: More efforts will be made to improve the financial management of the Sarawak Museum Department.

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youths and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said although the Auditor General’s (AG) report was for 2016, he would seriously look into the matter even though he was not the minister in-charge then.

“Definitely, I’m not happy with the performance of Sarawak Museum Department (due to what was) rightly pointed out by the AG.

“I need to read thoroughly what has been pointed out by the AG and make amendment. God willing, from 2017 onward we will see much improvement,” he said when asked to comment on the AG’s report which was released Monday.

According to the report, the Sarawak Museum Department and the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly were two departments in Sarawak having financial management performance rating of ‘less than satisfactory’ or less than two stars.

Abdul Karim assured that whatever weaknesses that were pointed out in the AG’s report would be looked into and rectified.

He also said he would need sometimes to look into every element within the Sarawak Museum Department’s financial management system as he only become the minister in-charge of the department in early May this year.

“The public must understand that the report was made in 2016 (between Nov 2016 and Feb 2017)," he said.

In the AG’s Report Series 1, 2016, the Sarawak Museum Department was rated in the bottom two out of the 27 audited ministries, government departments and agencies.

The Sarawak Museum Department only earned 65.71 points in the financial management rating in 2016.

The AG’s report also revealed that the department was ‘less than satisfactory’ in the management control and revenue control.

In general, the weaknesses detected, according to the report, were that its organisation chart was not fully prepared and displayed, the officials involved with financial management were not legitimate or authorised or properly appointed in writing.

In addition, the AG said the delegation of power was also not proper and there was no clear segregation of duties in financial management to ensure ‘check and balance’.

Other weaknesses included payments being made without receiving the goods or services, payments not supported by full documentation, and the debit statement received from the State Treasury not reviewed or supported with all the original bills from the agency and the responsible officer, the AG added. -TheBorneoPost