A secretary-general, for instance, can approve contracts worth up to RM100 million.
And if the finance ministry allows it, the limit can be raised even higher.
“The RM100 million limit was fixed for all ministries by the finance ministry,” The Star quoted Health Ministry secretary-general Dr Chen Chaw Min as saying.
According to the Government Contracts Act 1949 (Act 120), all government contracts may be signed by a minister or by any public officer duly authorised in writing by the respective minister.
However, sometimes this is not strictly followed.
The 2014 Auditor-General’s Report showed that a former ministry of agriculture and agro-based industry (MOA) secretary-general had signed off on a RM268.222 million deal with a private firm in 2012, despite having no authority to do so.
This went against a 2009 circular by the government that an MOA secretary-general could only sign contracts of between RM20 million and RM100 million, said The Star report.
The MOA later admitted it was an error and that it was not done intentionally.
A source told The Star that secretaries-general did not have the power to approve projects on their own and that all project approvals had to go through a tender board which would comprise various committees, including financial and technical.
The officers involved in the tender process will also come from other ministries such as the finance ministry.
Approval from the finance ministry was also required before any project done via direct negotiation or restricted tender.
The report quoted the source as saying the ceiling amount that other senior ministry officials could sign would vary according to the ministries. This is because some ministries have bigger budgets and, as such, the value of contracts are larger than others.
The Star report gave this example: Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid, in a notice on Aug 26 last year, authorised the ministry’s secretary-general to sign on behalf of the government contracts of works, supplies and services worth up to RM100 million. He authorised the ministry’s deputy secretary-general to sign contracts worth up to RM50 million.
On Thursday, Rural and Regional Development Ministry secretary-general Mohd Arif Ab Rahman was remanded for seven days after the MACC brought him in over a case allegedly involving abuse of power, corruption and money laundering.