Penang to appoint independent auditor
Wednesday April 2, 2008
Penang to appoint independent auditor
By K. KASTURI DEWI
PENANG: An independent auditor will be appointed to look into the financial status of state government agencies and departments, with the Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP) topping the list.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the decision was made at Wednesday’s state exco meeting.
“We need a reputable accounting firm to handle the auditing of these agencies and departments, including the MPSP which has been running on a deficit budget for years,'’ he said after chairing the state exco meeting.
On Tuesday, State Local Government Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow disclosed that the MPSP was down to “its last few millions”, adding that the state government had to find a way to finance the council or it would run into financial difficulties by year-end.
With an accumulated deficit of RM226mil over the last eight years, the MPSP had been scraping the bottom of the barrel to keep operations afloat.
Chow had said the council had a reserve of RM229mil in 2000 but was left with only RM25.6mil at the end of 2007.
Let’s hope that the Penang Government will appoint high quality auditors. The auditors should come up with recommendations on what the State should do. WE don’t need auditors who can only point out problems and not able to suggest to us a GOOD and EFFECTIVE solution(s) to the “mess”
Comment by Hitam — Monday, 14-04-2008 @ 01: 58.26
Make public the findings of the auditors.
Comment by kalama — Saturday, 19-04-2008 @ 02: 26.33