'Rewards' for departments, agencies which cut budgets, suggests Auditor-General

MALACCA: Government departments and agencies which are able to achieve spending cuts and use less than their allocated budgets should not be punished with a 'budget cut' next year. 

Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang said such departments and agencies have their priorities straight and understand the importance of making sacrifices to reduce their expenditures. 

"Some departments with savings should be 'rewarded' (instead of seeing a budget cut the following year), so that the same allocation could be used for other expenditures which were previously sacrificed, based on the principle of necessity," said Ambrin after closing the Transformation of Government Procurement seminar here, today. 

He cited, as an example, the replacement of old computers as a delayed expenditure which may still be necessary to improve productivity of a government department or agency. "Take computers for example. If you continue using old computers, it will affect your productivity. So what is wrong with purchasing new computers for departments with savings? There is appropriateness in this," he said.

NST Online