Auditors say Tourism Ministry should divest holdings in five companiesKUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 - Audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has recommended that Pempena, a subsidiary of the Tourism Ministry, shed its investments in five companies, suffering an immediate loss of RM20 million.
This is out of an RM54.4 million total outlay on 24 companies as stated in a summary report of a "high level business review" of the Pempena Group released to the ministry on Nov 6.
This was revealed in a press conference in Parliament today by DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang after receiving the report from Tourism Minister Datuk Azalina Othman.
However, Lim was dissatisfied that the PwC report did not touch on various alleged financial scandals and insisted on obtaining a full report as well as details of an internal audit by the ministry.
"It is mentioned in the PwC report that the investigation into the various scandals in Pempena were 'separately performed internally'.
"Why did Azalina hide the fact from Parliament that there had been an internal audit which was completed on Aug 14?" Lim said, referring to Azalina's speech in Dewan Rakyat on Nov 3 where she only mentioned the independent audit by PwC.
On Oct 15, Lim had told Parliament that Azalina had hired 20 staff for her office when the Public Services Department only allows for eight. He also said that there were financial scandals involving over RM40 million, which prompted Azalina to say she would make known details of the PwC audit.
"Is she prepared to table the internal audit in Parliament?" the Ipoh Timur MP challenged.
He referred to an expose in The Sun where the newspaper claimed that the internal audit showed separate outlays of RM300,000 for a concert and RM2.1 million in shares, but neither the concert nor the share certificates were forthcoming.
He referred to an expose in The Sun where the newspaper claimed that the internal audit showed separate outlays of RM300,000 for a concert and RM2.1 million in shares, but neither the concert nor the share certificates were forthcoming.
Lim said that the PwC findings alone were enough for "heads to roll for such incompetence and ineptitude."
Lim said that he would lodge a report tomorrow and leave it to the police to decide if the Anti-Corruption Agency should be brought in to investigate the matter.
He also called on the Public Accounts Committee to conduct an inquiry into the affairs of the Tourism Ministry. -- The Malaysian Insider
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