I think Limkamput was referring to another loyar, not you.

I thought you are a self-confessed nincompoop?? Don’t blame posters if they agree with you! So far I have not visited your blog because it is after all that of a self-confessed nincompoop. Don’t have time to trade views with a self-confessed nincompoop. Sorry.

You’re absolutely right!
But does the PAC have any power to force anyone, especially the senior officials like the PM etc to be placed under cross examination? I don’t think so.
Also, as have been posted, PAC only comes into the picture after the act has been done – by then it will be far too late and the effectiveness of PAC is completely nullified!
All these oversight committees are just white-wash, that’s just what they are.
Just look at the toll and IPP agreements which were signed under great secrecy and when the public plied pressure on the government, it talked about renegotiating the deals. Which is completely stupid.
That caused those successful in the bidding to accuse the government of reneging on the deals and they are right!
The government looks stupid in the eyes of the privatised companies as well as the public! But then being stupid is the order of the day! Perhaps stupidity pays!!
In the end, nothing is done and we all suffer!

What you are saying is that the PAC is a reactive, and not a proactive or preventive, body. Whilst I agree with you that this will be used as an excuse in not proceeding with a hearing, the rakyat will see that as what it is – a pure excuse, and certainly not within the spirit of transparency, accountability and integrity that the Barang Naik coalition has promised.

The PAC should be proactive so that public expenditure is not incurred unncessarily or imprudently. If the excuse is that the trigger for investigation is only AFTER expenditure has been incurred, then it is too late. Mind you, there may not be any wrongdoing – although this case smells to high heaven – and the PAC should act to stop the stupidity or the carelessness of the people involved in spending public funds.

In any case, this discussion may be moot in that the Defence Ministry now says that the deal will proceed.

Though in this sense PAC is an important institution, acting as ombudsman, the extent to which overall problem of political corruption may be mitigated depends on wider issues and impact f actors, eg whether there’s strong element of ethics or lack thereof in political and wider societal culture, whether there are strong disincentives to corruption by virtue of govt ministers being paid well as in Singapore, other strong ‘watch dog’ institutions are firmly in place such as an aggressive and independent ACA/AG’s departrtment, independent press, strong, vigilant and vociferous Opposition in Parliament and civil society & NGO groups to scrutinise, and ultimately an independent judiciary to adjudicate.

Without these other watchdog props exerting pressure in combination to check corruption, PAC’s role alone would be ineffective.

For one thing our PAC should not be chaired by BN MP but should be by a senior Opposition MP.

For PAC to be effective, its oversight has to be involved in the government’s planning stage determining how much to spend and who the contract should be given to before any major public expediture is committed.

It is not case here. The planning stage is shrouded in secrecy; it is protected by the Official Secrets Act : especially on matters pertaining to military procurement and national defence.

Only after letter of intent has been issued or even acquisition agreement signed (as in Maybank’s acqusition of BII), then only PAC comes in (if there were a public furore) – closing the barn door after horses have bolted, so to speak.

Even then – as in Cougar EC725 Eurocopter case – the Executive could just shelve defer or abrogate the deal whether or not really for reasons of “falling revenues from crude oil and palm oil and slowing economic growth for the next few years”, and that will be end of the scrutiny.

As I said, the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has no more oversight role when public acounts and expeditures – per the PAC’s main terms of reference – are no more involved or o9n the table, as when the government withdraws or rescinds the deal.

The PAC’s BN chairman has this excuse to call off the enquiry.

The decision to cut out the EC725 military helicopter contract in the light of the slowing economy is just an excuse, as if we believe they care?!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aGwXKvp1yE8o&refer=japan

# cinaindiamelayubersatu Says:
Today at 22: 26.37 (4 minutes ago)

ala….kepala pac tu orang orang aku jugak. bila aku ada untung aku bagi la dia sikit..aku minta dia tutup sebelah mata lah dengan duit aku yang banyak itu…

PAC is made up off members of both side of the house.

From DAP, Tan Seng Giaw and Tony Pua.

One of the greatest hit sectors will be our manufacturing (mainly electronic) industry. All our main export markets like the USA, EU countries, Japan, Singapore are in deep recession. They will not buy the luxury electronic goods Malaysia is exporting now. Most of the MNC companies in Malaysia make high-end products like LCD TVs, high-end audio/visual products, etc. Lower-end electronic products have already moved to China and Vietnam a few years ago. When our end clients are not buying homes, they will definitely not buying the electronic goods too.

When Malaysians become jobless and when their stomachs are hungry too, they will become very angry people.
We will start to feel great pinch and pain starting early next year since MNCs in Malaysia is still now busy producing orders that we received months ago.

The 1997 Currency Crisis that Malaysia went through would be peanuts when compare to current one. During the currency crisis in ’97, all our exporting markets were doing fine. This round all our main trading partners are in deep shits, so Malaysia will be in deep shits too if the Government is not doing the right things from now!

Posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at October 24, 2008 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (412) | TrackBacks (0) | Previous Blog
1. Saya mendapat banyak laporan berkenaan dengan politik wang dalam UMNO. Demikianlah keadaan sehingga Dato Seri Dr Rais Yatim mencadang secara sinis supaya jawatan-jawatan Majlis Tertinggi ditender. Dato Seri Shahidan Kassim amat marah dan akan tender sebanyak RM1 untuk Rais. Bila makan cili rasa pedas.

2. Saya diberi tahu wang banyak digunakan. Dahulu cuma ketua pemuda bahagian sahaja dapat. Ini menyebabkan pemegang jawatan lain dalam pergerakan enggan bekerjasama. Sekarang semua mendapat sogokan dan hasilnya amat memuaskan bagi penyogok.

3. Ketua-ketua Bahagian dan ahli jawatankuasa juga dijemput ke Kuala Lumpur untuk berjumpa orang tertentu. Mereka di arah supaya mencalonkan orang-orang tertentu untuk Timbalan Presiden, Naib Presiden dan ahli Majlis Tertinggi. Juga pencalonan Ketua Pemuda. Berkesan atau tidak akan kita lihat daripada pencalonan yang dibuat.

4. Tetapi cawangan dan ahli biasa pun sudah pandai. Mereka menawarkan sokongan mereka jika sekian-sekian banyak dihulur.

5. Mereka yang menang boleh jadi Yang Berhormat, ahli Exco, Menteri, Timbalan Menteri, Setiausaha Parlimen, pengerusi syarikat-syarikat Kerajaan dan juga dapat kontrak berjuta Ringgit.

6. Ahli biasa yang memberi sokongan dengan undi mereka dapat apa? Dengan kesedaran akan soal ini maka penyokong dan pengundi pula berpendapat mereka juga harus dapat nikmat daripada pemberian undi mereka. Maka mereka akan menunggu sogokan sebelum memberi undi mereka.

7. Amalan rasuah dalam UMNO di semua peringkat sudah menjadi buah mulut orang ramai. Mereka jelek dan muak dengan UMNO, orang UMNO dan pemimpin UMNO. Perasaan benci kepada UMNO sebagai parti yang tidak bermoral merebak ke merata-rata tempat.

8. Orang ramai melihat UMNO sebagai parti pimpinan orang-orang yang berkepentingan diri semata-mata. Dari cawangan sehinggalah kepada pucuk pimpinan yang diutamakan ialah jawatan dan peluang memain kuasa dan buat duit apabila memegang jawatan.

9. Dalam pilihanraya umum 2004, rakyat memberi sokongan padu kepada BN. Ini adalah kerana rakyat percaya benar yang kepimpinan baru UMNO dan Barisan Nasional akan menjadi lebih baik daripada yang terdahulu.

10. Antara 2004 dengan 2008 mereka dapat lihat pemerintahan Abdullah dengan rasuah yang berleluasa dan keruntuhan ekonomi. Mereka juga lihat peranan yang dimainkan oleh keluarganya dan kroni mereka dan juga sikap ahli-ahli kabinet. Apa yang mereka lihat meyakinkan mereka bahawa pemerintahan ini tidak baik. Hasilnya ialah keputusan pilihanraya ke-12.

11. Mereka kecewa bahawa Abdullah bukan sahaja tidak membetulkan keadaan tetapi sebaliknya menafikan kekalahan dan penolakan oleh pengundi, termasuk yang terdiri daripada ahli-ahli dan penyokong UMNO dan lain-lain parti komponen.

12. Saya percaya orang ramai amat kecewa melihat mainan wang dalam UMNO sekarang. Wang akan mengalir dengan banyak dan laju semasa dan selepas pencalonan. Rumah terbuka oleh kementerian sedang diadakan dengan menggunakan duit Kementerian. Semasa rumah terbuka kempen untuk pencalonan diadakan.

13. Menjelang pemilihan bulan Mac 2009 lebih banyak lagi acara dan sogokan boleh diadakan. Kemuncak akan tiba apabila wakil ke Mesyuarat Agong tiba di Kuala Lumpur untuk bersidang.

14. Kata orang melihat kepada jawatan-jawatan yang dipertandingkan tiap seorang wakil boleh dapat hingga RM20,000.

15. Ada yang berpendapat tidak apa menerima sogokan tetapi tidak semestinya mengundi penyogok. Jangan percaya iman penerima begitu kuat sehingga tidak merasa terhutang budi. Lagipun duit yang diterima adalah duit haram. Yang menerima akan menanggung dosa.

16. Terimalah. Pedulikan jika semua orang tahu. Apa salahnya. Dosa, dosalah. Tetapi seperti disebut di atas apabila pengundi pilihanraya umum sudah benci dan bosan dengan UMNO mereka akan undi parti lawan untuk kalahkan UMNO. Selepas kalah tidak ada lagi jawatan Perdana Menteri, Menteri dan lain-lain. Tidak akan ada lagi kontrak, AP dan lesen.Tidak akan ada lagi nikmat! Semua pihak akan merana, akan dihina oleh orang. Dan UMNO akan habis riwayatnya. Mereka yang betul-betul sayang kepada UMNO akan kutuk pemimpin dan ahli UMNO.

17. Inilah akhirnya musibah yang akan diterima kerana tamak, kerana rasuah di kalangan pemimpin dan ahli UMNO.