ECONOMIC CRIME IN ASIA: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Dealing With Public Sector Fraud: Enhancing Integrity And Transparency In Government Financial Management How National Audit Department plays its role in mitigating fraud and enhances the public accountability in Government Financial Management System Tan Sri Dato’ Setia Hj. Ambrin Bin Buang Auditor General Malaysia
1 October 2008 Fraud and corruption I believe is omnipresent. It is not confine to poor countries. As we are aware in recent, it has happened in developed countries going by the reports about Enron and WorldCom in U.S.A, Banco Ambrosiano in Italy, Barrings in UK etc. Malaysia too is an exception where as a matter of fact fraud can occur in the private sector as well as the public sector. In reality we have had our own little Enron’s in recent times. According to police records in 2006 there were 6,921 commercial crime cases amounting to RM 685 million involving Criminal Breach of Trusts, cheating and cyber crimes. On top of that, we had 2,892 cases involving falsification, fake currency notes, credit cards and offences under the copyright Act such as the censorship Act. As for the Malaysian public sector, suspected fraud cases which was unveiled by the A.G: reports continue to be a major public concern. These cases are considered ‘suspected’ because under the law fraud has to be proven in court based on proper investigation by the competent authorities. Until then, these cases can be conveniently classified as mismanagement which should at least disciplinary actions should be taken by the department heads against the defendant. Over the years, the AG Report revealed a string of suspected fraud cases. I remember several years ago, 4 chimpanzees were brought into the country for the Taiping Zoo falsely declared as being sourced from a breeding state in Nigeria. However, these animals were actually