The police chief claimed that the guns could have fallen into the sea and the home minister opened fire on a journalist when quizzed on the matter.

And in the latest twist to the mystery of missing firearms, handcuffs and vehicles, Auditor-General Ambrin Buang blamed it on carelessness.

NONEHowever, he did not dismiss inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar's take on the matter.

"We can't discount the possibility when the police conduct operations or training at sea, the pistols may have fallen into the sea," he said.        

When quizzed on how these items could go missing, Amrin said it was due to the negligent acts of police personnel, where weapons are misplaced or stolen.

The auditor-general also pointed out that there was weaknesses in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on handling assets.

Ambrin also explained that his department discovered that these items were missing after being alerted by the lost reports received from the police.

"In respect of any loss of government assets, a ministry, department or agency is required by the regulation to furnish a written report to the Ministry of Finance and Auditor General's Office," he said.

Police explanation

Meanwhile, Ambrin refuted Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's claim that he had explained the matter to the audit department but this was not included in the report.

"There was no mention about guns missing in the sea in our report and there was no reply from the police on this issue.  It was just an explanation by the IGP. The explanation of the police on other issues is included in our report," said Ambrin.

He added that the latest feedback from the police dated Aug 5 to the Federal Treasury which could not be included in time in the Audit Report mainly highlighted that the Special Panel to Investigate the Missing Assets held a meeting on July 9 to discuss all the issues regarding the missing assets and actions to be taken among others:
  • Setting up of the Investigation Committee without delay;
  • All the records keeping regarding assets to be based on the records kept by Commission of Enquiry unit (a unit in Assets Division, PDRM);
  • Directive issued to all related contingent offices to collect compensation/surcharge imposed on personal police who are responsible for the missing assets due to negligence; and
  • Provide safe and suitable place for keeping assets to prevent missing of assets.
Ambrin said the Accounts and Finance Management Committee also held a meeting on July 31 to discuss all the issues regarding the missing assets and actions to be taken, which among others were:
  • Periodic inspection of assets to be done
  • Disciplinary action to be taken on police personnel who failed to comply with orders and regulations; and
  • Directive given to ensure no delay in reporting missing assets.
"In respect of the discrepancy between statistics as reported in the audit report with the IGP statements, all the statistics mentioned in the Audit Report were given and confirmed by PDRM. There is no dispute regarding these statistics," said Amrin.

In a related development, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang said the IGP should be hauled before the chief secretary's special committee on the 2012 Auditor-General's Report for the missing firearms and police assets instead of being represented on the committee

"More and more questions are being asked about the high-level chief secretary’s special committee announced by Chief Secretary Ali Hamsa on Saturday.

"According to Ali, who will chair the special committee, other members are the Public Services director-general, attorney-general as well as representatives from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, Finance Ministry and the police," he added in a statement.

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