KUCHING: Last year was not a good time for the Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Children Development Ministry.
“Its performance was disappointing,” said the minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah.
In fact, the National Audit Report 2018 (NAR 2018) placed the ministry at the bottom of its ranking, exposing several focus areas that need to be improved.
“However, we have to move forward, fix our mistakes and strengthen the weak areas,” said Fatimah during a dinner celebrating integrity day of the Sarawak Women and Family Department (JWKS) last Friday at Damai Beach Hotel.
“We have identified the focus areas that we need to improve especially in terms of Management and Compliance such as Asset and Store Management, Financial Management, Procurement, Expenditure and Transportation.”
On financial management, it was about spending management, procurement and trust account management despite the ministry’s prudence in its spending. Fatimah recognised this and said there were indeed weaknesses in the ministry’s financial management and monitoring of expenses.
Regarding asset and store management, the NAR 2018 found slight weakness in the ministry’s mobile assets which were inherited from another office prior to its existence.
“I have directed the ministry’s management division to resolve this issue and thankfully, the issue has been resolved. At the recommendation of the Audit Department and as a result of the improvement, the ministry has implemented the appointment of a warrant holder along with a matrix of authority limits and responsibilities. This is in accordance with the provisions of Treasury Instructions 11,” she said.
In addition to addressing the knowledge gaps as well as increasing the capacity of the officers responsible for financial management, Fatimah noted that her ministry had conducted in-house training and sent its officers to special courses related to financial management.
