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FOURTEEN permanent secretaries will be called in to account for their ministries’ failure to meet development targets for physical projects last year, as the federal government steps up scrutiny over delays affecting essential public infrastructure.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar said the ministries in question recorded development expenditure performance below the national average, with overall basic development spending reaching only 87.91 per cent in 2025. He did not disclose which ministries were involved.
“Fourteen ministries were found to be below the national average. These physical projects involve matters of public interest such as the construction and upgrading of roads, schools, clinics and hospitals,” he said at a press conference after the Chief Secretary’s Address 2026 here.
“I will call in the permanent secretaries of these 14 ministries, and this will have an impact on their performance assessment under the Demerit Performance Evaluation System,” he added.
Tan Sri Shamsul Azri explained that the projects had not been abandoned but were progressing too slowly, resulting in underutilised allocations.
“That is why the achievement was only 87 per cent. The funds were allocated, but not fully used, which is a loss. Those funds could have been channelled to other needs,” he said.
Earlier in his address, he said a total of 9,578 development projects had been implemented nationwide, involving allocations of RM83.06 billion, with actual spending amounting to RM81.67 billion as of Dec 22. This translated into an overall national average development expenditure performance of 98.33 per cent.
In a related move to strengthen governance, Tan Sri Shamsul Azri said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had been instructed to intensify integrity awareness programmes across all ministries and government departments. The Ministry of Finance has also been directed to conduct similar courses, particularly to address weaknesses in financial understanding that could lead to leakages and governance gaps.
“All permanent secretaries must organise awareness sessions at every level of administration. I have also asked the Ministry of Finance to conduct such courses because financial matters are sometimes not well understood, and this can encourage leakages and weaknesses,” he said.
He stressed that integrity units within ministries and departments must play a proactive role in reinforcing the message that integrity is a core issue in public service.
“The decline in integrity among civil servants must be addressed because it can cause widespread damage and negatively affect the quality of public services,” he said.
When asked whether the Environmental, Social and Governance framework would be expanded across the public sector, Tan Sri Shamsul Azri said all good practices, including ESG frameworks, would be adopted to improve work quality and governance standards throughout the administration.
His remarks come amid broader efforts to tighten governance across government institutions. Earlier this week, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin announced that the Defence Ministry would carry out a major overhaul of its anti-corruption plan this year to combat entrenched corruption and abuse of power, particularly within the Malaysian Armed Forces.
Under the initiative, all tender and procurement processes will be reviewed and improved in line with best practices, with Mohamed Khaled warning that officers found responsible for compromising national security would “lose everything”. He also said it was time for the Defence Ministry to implement the ESG framework in a more structured and comprehensive manner as part of its reforms in 2026. - January 15, 2026