CIVIL servants must avoid the practice of rushed end-of-year spending—often dubbed “Christmas Shopping”—as it leads to inefficient use of public funds and may undermine trust in government integrity and financial governance, said Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar.
Speaking at the 2025 Management Accounting Seminar organised by the National Accounting Department (JANM), Shamsul Azri said such spending habits not only waste resources but also reflect poorly on the government’s financial discipline.
“Poor spending management affects resource efficiency and may create a negative perception regarding government integrity and governance,” he said. His speech was delivered by Auditor-General Datuk Seri Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi.
Shamsul Azri noted that while the Auditor-General’s Report continues to highlight financial mismanagement, incidents of misuse and waste of public resources persist.
“If this issue is allowed to grow more complex and remains unresolved, it will damage public trust in civil servants generally,” he said.
He urged public officials to uphold transparency, integrity, and accountability as core principles of governance and ethics, in line with the MADANI Government’s emphasis on optimising public expenditure and revising policy frameworks to ensure efficiency and value for money.
“Continuing with targeted subsidy policies enables the government to minimise waste and leakages, while creating fiscal space to enhance aid for vulnerable groups,” he added.
Shamsul Azri said the government has also taken a proactive step by amending the Audit Act 1957, which will enhance the scope of financial audits and ensure that audit recommendations are acted upon seriously across ministries, departments, agencies, and any entity receiving public funds.
He said JANM, as the lead agency for management accounting across all ministries, has initiated implementation of Malaysia Treasury Circular PS 1.3, which introduces Strategic Management Accounting and Reporting (SMARt).
“The emphasis of management accounting will be on achieving maximum value, complementing the government’s broader fiscal management goals,” he said.
This move, he said, will directly improve efficiency, effectiveness and accountability in the public service, ensuring optimal use of resources in financial management, risk mitigation and service delivery.
He called on all ministry secretaries-general, who also serve as controlling officers, to ensure the effective implementation of management accounting and SMARt reporting to boost transparency in financial decision-making.
“Civil servants must take proactive steps to develop technical expertise in increasingly complex areas of finance and accounting, while also cultivating non-financial acumen to improve management accounting practices in the public sector,” he said.
He also stressed the importance of adapting to technology such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and intelligent automation, which can help government agencies capture, analyse, and interpret financial data in real time. - May 6, 2025
