The National Audit Department has proposed 23 recommendations for three ministries and seven federal departments in the 2019 Auditor-General's Report Series 1, said Auditor-General Datuk Nik Azman Nik Abdul Majid.

The ministries are the Defence Ministry, Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and Education Ministry.

The departments meanwhile comprise the Prisons Department; Marine Department; Polytechnics; Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF); Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM); Customs Department and Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

"The proposed recommendations are to assist heads of the departments take corrective actions and improvements," he said at the media conference in conjunction with the tabling of the report in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Nik Azman said compliance auditing was a new approach implemented by the department in accordance with the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institution (ISSAI) 4000 and 4100.

"It also used the 3P1K approach to identify elements of public fund wastage, misappropriation and leakage," he said.

Nik Azman said the process involved contracts procurement and quotations at the Defence Ministry, Prisons Department, Malaysian Marine Department and polytechnics; missing public funds and movable assets at the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry and Education Ministry; tax refunds at the Customs Department and the IRB; maintenance service fees at RMAF and PDRM as well as alcohol duty import assessment at the Customs Department.

Meanwhile, he said the department also proposed 50 recommendations for federal-level government companies in order for them to rectify weaknesses identified in the report.

Nik Azman said nine management audits were conducted on federal government companies for the Auditor-General's Report 2019 Series 1.

He said the government companies were TH Hotel & Residence Sdn Bhd, Amanah Raya Bhd, Small Medium Enterprises Development Bank Malaysia Bhd, Technology Park Malaysia Corporation Sdn Bhd, UDA Holdings Bhd, CIDB E-Construct Services Sdn Bhd, Talent Corporation Malaysia Bhd, Malaysian Industry-Government Group For High Technology and National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia.

"The audits cover three aspects, namely corporate governance, activity management and analysis of the company's financial position," he said, adding that the audits were also conducted in accordance with Section 5 (1) (d) of the Audit Act 1957.

The public can access the report at http://www.audit.gov.my.

--BERNAMA