The 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service

BIOGRAPHY of Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin Bin Haji Zakaria

"To Allah, the Almighty God, belongs whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Whether you make known what is in your mind or hide it, Allah, Almighty God, will bring you to account for it in the hereafter."

This passage from the Koran, the sacred book of Muslims, was learned as a small boy by AHMAD NOORDIN BIN HATI ZAKARIA from his grandmother. Accepted as a maxim of conduct, personal accountability became an ingrained habit. Later as Malaysia's auditor-general he would remind government servants, who were predominantly Muslims, that they are ultimately accountable to their creator.

Born on February 18, 1921, NOORDIN was the first son of Haji Zakaria bin Haji Taib and the only child of his second wife, Khadijah binte Daud whom he married as allowed by Islamic custom, because his first wife had not produced a male heir. Subsequently the first wife, who had already borne three daughters, gave birth to two more girls and two boys. The two wives lived in separate households in Kampong (village) Seberang Pasir Mas, a small settlement on the eastern bank of the Kelantan River, 20 kilometers southwest of Kota Bharu, in the state of Kelantan, in what was then Malaya under British rule and is now independent Malaysia. While the half-brothers and sisters were close as children and remain so to this day, the relationship between the two wives was one of tolerance.

Flooding was frequent and the river often dangerous. Because of this and the lack of regular ferry service, NOORDIN's father initially would not allow his oldest son to risk the crossing to Pasir Mas on the opposite shore to attend classes at Sekolah Melayu (Malay School). As school held no appeal to him then, the youngster applauded this decision.

NOORDIN remembers they never went hungry, yet the family was not well off. His father had studied in Mecca for three years and was fluent in Arabic and conversant with the Koran. However, he had retired as a religious teacher, and earned only a little as a tutor, part-time registrar of marriages and Arabic interpreter. His mother had inherited a small plot of paddy land and was a resourceful woman who contributed to the family's welfare by steaming tepong pelita (coconut cream rice cakes) for sale in the local coffee shop. She also grew and sold the fragrant bunga melur (jasmine-like flower) much prized by local women as a perfume substitute.

While NOORDIN never attended religious school, his father insisted he study the Koran, an obligation for Muslim children. He never mastered Arabic, nor attained a deep understanding of the sacred book, but its precepts were to guide his early life and shape his public career.

When he was eight he accompanied his parents to Kuala Trengganu (capital of the adjacent state of Trengganu on the South China Sea) where his father had received an appointment to the state mosque. However, the meager salary of M$22 per month was insufficient and they returned to their kampong within a year. By then a regular sampan ferry was in service between Kampong Seberang and the town of Pasir Mas. His father now allowed him to enroll in the Malay School in Pasir Mas where from 1930 to 1935 he studied the "three Rs" and Kelantan history. Instruction was by rote and he remembers with pride his facility with the arithmetic tables, an inkling of his future skill with figures. Because he excelled, his headmaster, a former pupil of his father, urged NOORDIN's father to send him to the newly-established government English school, Sultan Ismail, in Kota Bharu, the state capital. His father, recognizing the importance of English and wanting success for his eldest son, agreed and arranged for him to stay with his half-sister whose husband was a police corporal in that town. But when he went to enroll the boy in January 1936 he was told by the Superintendent of Education that entry was limited to children under 12 and his son was overage.

Perhaps sensing NOORDIN's eagerness to obtain an education the Superintendent of Education advised his father to fill out a new application giving the boy's birthdate as 1924; he was accepted and thus became the first boy from his kampong to attend an English-language high school. The superintendent's confidence was not misplaced. NOORDIN quickly rose to the top of his class, a rank he maintained throughout his five years of formal education. In his third year his popularity and leadership qualities were recognized and he was chosen head prefect, a position of responsibility vis-a-vis the other boys. A scholarship and overseas study now seemed within reach—but war was to shatter the young student's dream.

Although he and his father, an avid newspaper reader, followed every stage of the German and Japanese advances in Europe and Asia, the events seemed remote to them. The colonial government however mobilized voluntary organizations as a precaution in case of hostilities and, as a Boy Scout, NOORDIN was assigned to the medical auxiliary.

Sustained artillery fire disturbed his sleep in the early hours of December 8, 1941. He remembers wondering why the local troops chose that hour for target practice, but the morning light shed a different interpretation—the Japanese flag could clearly be seen on the low-flying planes overhead. The Japanese Imperial Army had landed at the Beach of Passionate Love 10 kilometers north of Kota Bharu, but the reality of the invasion did not come until he saw a dead Japanese soldier fished from the Kelantan River later that afternoon. The following day NOORDIN manned his hospital post and, ignoring bullets which splattered the walls, watched the enemy's methodical advance and the retreat of the British, Australian and Indian troops into the surrounding jungle.

The peninsula campaign was swift and when Singapore fell two months later schools were reopened under the occupation administration. NOORDIN returned to what had now become a Japanese school and, because of the lack of available teachers, within a year was made a student-teacher, teaching in Malay and English.

Teaching was not to his liking however, and as the pay was insufficient for him to maintain himself and he hated to continue to be a burden to his brother-in-law, he applied for a job in the Postal Service. He was appointed clerk and assigned to the duty of censoring letters, earning double his teaching salary. After a year he was sent with two other Kelantanese to Singapore for advanced Japanese language study. NOORDIN, who has a keen ear for languages, quickly became quite proficient and on his return was assigned as an interpreter at what to him was a "princely sum."

As the war's end neared, Japan repatriated the northern Malay states of Kelantan, Trengganu, Kedah and Perlis to Thailand under whose suzerainty they had been until 1909. A Thai military officer became governor of Kelantan. Although NOORDIN knew no Thai, he was assigned to the governor's office to interpret Malay into English; here he formed a beneficial lifelong friendship with Dato' Nik Ahmad Kamil. With the interpreter's salary of M$100, NOORDIN was able to support his parents comfortably until the Japanese defeat.

The four northern Malay states reverted from Thai to British control upon the Japanese surrender, and Dato' Kamil temporarily assumed control of the Kelantan government. One of the first orders issued after liberation was the demonetization of Japanese occupation currency. It was NOORDIN who was given the job of translating and typing the order. With a few hours advance information before promulgation, he scraped together all his available cash and bought soap, the only commodity left in the stores.

With the return of the British NOORDIN lost his job and returned to his kampong, but through a lucky coincidence was working again in a month or two. Tengku Mahamud Mahyideen, the Superintendent of Education, who was partner in circumventing the age restriction to allow NOORDIN to join the English school nine years before, had returned with the British army. He remembered NOORDIN as an eager and capable student. On his 'recommendation NOORDIN got employed as a food control inspector with an increase in salary.

NOW, the young man decided, it was time to marry. His friends proposed Kalthom binte Ali, the daughter of a religious teacher who had bequeathed her some coconut lands, and a wedding soon followed. With a secure government post and a new wife NOORDIN expected to be content, but his job as food control inspector entailed arresting and detaining food hoarders. Being the instrument of punishment was distasteful to him and the offer of bribes from hoarders and speculators was repugnant; he wanted no part of it. His request for reassignment, however, even at a lower clerk's position, elicited an unsympathetic, "If you don't like your job, resign."

He gave up his position but soon gained appointment as chief clerk in the licensing section of the Price Control Office in Kuala Trengganu. Accepting the job meant long absences from his now pregnant wife, but both pay and position were good, and he had time to study for the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate Examination, which he had not been able to take earlier because of the war. He knew that the Cambridge certificate was a requirement for advancement.

He had read extensively ever since he was a schoolboy and had enjoyed the adventure stories in English literature class—the retelling of which in local dialect to his kampong cousins had earned him a reputation as a raconteur. The small Carnegie Library in Kota Bharu, before it was looted at the outbreak of the war, was a source of supplemental reading. This symbol of British influence had been an early target of the Japanese who ordered the books burned. Many however were saved and passed around. The works of Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Robert Louis Stevenson,

Joseph Conrad, Shakespeare, Alexander Dumas, Victor Hugo and Voltaire found their way into his hands and enlivened the monotony of the occupation years when "there was nothing else to do." Thus well grounded in literature, he borrowed books for supplemental study on geography, geometry and algebra. Sitting for the examination as a private student in 1947 NOORDIN passed—one of fewer than a hundred in all of Malaya to do so. This qualified him to apply for the Kelantan civil service which he entered in January 1949 as a Cadet Officer on three-year probation.

He was attached first to the land office in Kota Bharu where he learned basic procedures, beginning with the formalities governing Temporary Occupancy License (TOL) land, i.e. riverbank land where vegetable gardening is allowed, but extensive cultivation is prohibited as a prevention against erosion. This was familiar to the young bureaucrat as much of the produce in his own kampong was grown on TOL land.

Before a civil service appointment is confirmed a cadet must pass an examination which tests him in three fields of fundamental legal knowledge—criminal law, statute law and financial law. This is to prepare him for service as a district officer, who has judicial as well as administrative responsibilities. Although cadets are given the full three-year probationary period to pass the examination, NOORDIN completed the requirement within the first twelve months.

In 1951 the young officer was appointed Third Assistant Secretary concurrently to the State Executive Council and to the State Assembly. This was unusual both in that it was a double appointment and he had not completed his probationary period. A year later he was also appointed Secretary to the Chief Minister, his friend and mentor Dato' Kamil. It was a heavy load but a challenge the young officer welcomed. He recalls that often Kamil would return late from a meeting and order a detailed report typed for presentation the following morning A hard taskmaster yet an efficient executive, he was much admired by the young officer.

In 1955 NOORDIN's years of double duty were rewarded by his selection for a six-month Colombo Plan study grant in Australia, a plum usually reserved for more senior officers. He was determined to profit from his first overseas trip by learning as much theory and practice of local government as possible. In Melbourne, where he stayed longest, and in Brisbane and New South Wales, he discussed administrative procedures with town clerks and others who interpret and implement regulations at the municipal level. These discussions were particularly useful since Australia is a federal state and Malaya was in the process of becoming one.

Soon after his return to Kelantan NOORDIN was assigned to Ulu Kelantan as Assistant District Officer, a position of influence and authority because the people still turned to the district officers for both political and administrative assistance. Ulu Kelantan was an inland area torn by communist insurgency. Since the newly-elected prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman (1960 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Community Leadership "for guidance of a multi-racial society towards communal alliance and national identity") had offered amnesty to the insurgents, one of NOORDIN's responsibilities was to travel his jurisdiction explaining the terms. Roads were few so transportation was by boat. The danger was double he recalls: jagged rocks concealed below the water and communist guerrillas.

He minimized the risk of rocks by avoiding night travel. As the communists' principal interest was weapons capture, he always went unarmed and refused the standard police escort. Nevertheless as he made his rounds, speaking at local mosques after Friday prayers, he felt like a slowly moving duck in a shooting gallery, clearly within range of the enemy hidden behind the green foliage lining the narrow waterways. Intelligence officers later assured him that the distinctive sound of his outboard was known to the rebels who allowed this weaponless bureaucrat to pass unharmed.

He was next assigned to Tanah Merah, a sparsely populated district of 30,000. When the state decided to open land for resettlement the district officer and NOORDIN were asked to draw up a plan. Neither had any resettlement experience and there were no models to study. Undaunted they plunged ahead and together drafted a scheme allotting ten acres per family, two for homesite and vegetable garden, and eight for rubber trees. With little outside help 400 homesteaders cleared 4,000 acres of jungle which eventually became a national showpiece. This successful community pre-dated, and was a case study for, the Federal Land Development Authority, the effective executive of which after 1966 was Raja Muhammad Alias (1980 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Government Service "for steadfast, principled administration in translating Malaysia's 'land for the landless' schemes into prosperous realities").

NOORDIN had earlier sought an appointment in the federal civil service because the state civil service could offer little scope for advancement beyond the position of district officer. After submitting his

application twice he was accepted into the Malayan Civil Service in April 1957 and posted in January 1958 to Kuantan, Pahang, as Fourth Assistant State Secretary. Originally he was in charge of Chinese Affairs and later assigned to financial affairs, protocol and personnel. In less than four years he was promoted to First Assistant State Secretary, taking over from a European, and was in charge of local government and Emergency (communist insurgency) matters. Here he was dealing with local leaders and budgeting at the local level and could apply what he had learned in Australia. For a time he was Acting State Secretary, the highest civil service post in the state and as such ex-officio a member of the state cabinet. This, he recalls, was beyond the wildest dreams of a kampong boy. "God was kind," he explains.

The independence of Malaya from Britain was achieved on August 31,1957 and the years following were hectic for the young nation. Even though federal and state government officials were well trained, the new organizational relationship required officials to rethink past procedures and design policies for future contingencies. In Pahang the drawing up of much of this so-called subsidiary legislation fell to NooRDlN. He worked closely with Raja Azlan Shah, the state legal advisor who later became Lord President of the Supreme Court, drafting procedures for the first national election which was scheduled for 1959.

In 1961 NOORDIN was offered the job of State Financial Officer, the third most senior position in Pahang. Although he lacked the necessary accounting skills, he accepted and promptly set about correcting his deficiency, learning from those under him who were actually doing the work, and enrolling in a correspondence course of the Australian Chartered Institute of Secretaries. Working nights and weekends, in two years he successfully completed the course which covered principles of accounting, bookkeeping, company law, and English law and accounting. He was now in possession of the tools of knowledge which he would sharpen by use throughout the remainder of his career, much to the despair of the incompetent and corrupt.

The major role of the financial officer was budgeting, allocating funds to departments for the purpose of preparing a budget. At that time the budget was in English, the language of the former colonial power. NOORDIN ordered it to be submitted in Malay with an English translation" following, an innovation later adopted by the Federal Treasury.

In May 1963 NOORDIN was transferred to Kuala Lumpur, the federal capital, as Principal Assistant Secretary (again, in reality, a budget officer) in the Treasury Department. He headed one of the two sections responsible for examining budget requests from some 20 ministries and making allocation recommendations for them to parliament. The familiar pattern of rapid advancement up the bureaucratic ladder continued and in June 1965 he was promoted to Deputy Director, and in August 1968 to Director of the Budget. While in Treasury NOORDIN spent three months in the United States and two weeks in Canada under grants from the Ford Foundation and the Canadian International Development Agency studying budget innovations. The system being introduced in Washington was the Planning, Programming, Budgeting System (PPBS) which emphasized relating the resources of a given program to its specific objectives. Until then budget submissions from federal departments were mainly concerned—as in most countries—with salaries, services, utilities and purchases, and scant attention was paid to programs or goals. Under PPBS, American agencies were required to provide full information on objectives and past performance, as well as costs of program activities. Clearly stated objectives provided top management with a sense of direction for making intelligent use of scarce financial and human resources and convenient benchmarks for evaluating performance.

NOORDIN realized that he had found an important tool to help build a bureaucracy of responsible and accountable public servants. The timing of the study tour was fortuitous for as Director of the Budget he had the authority to effect procedural changes. Therefore, with the backing of the Secretary General of the Treasury, he tried his adaptation of PPBS on two ministries: Education and Health. They were asked to stipulate targets in their budget submissions and required to prepare two documents: the traditional tabulated list of amounts requested for specific projects and a detailed narrative of how the money was to be spent. It was neither sufficient nor acceptable, for example, to request funds just for hospital construction. The building would be of little use without doctors, nurses, staff and equipment. It was essential therefore to-include information about these resources. More importantly, it was necessary to prove that the proposed location was an area of need. The trial was a success and program budgeting became a reality throughout the federal government. NOORDIN considers this his most worthwhile contribution during his 13 years at the Treasury.

In July 1972 he was promoted to Second Deputy Secretary General in the Treasury, and in March 1974 to First Deputy Secretary General. As such he was ex-officio chairman of the powerful Estimates Subcommittee of the National Development Planning Committee responsible for the allocation of Five-Year Development Plan funds. This prestigious post gave him direct access to Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak (1967 Ramon MagsaysayAwardee for Community Leadership "for administering with quiet, efficient and innovative urgency the reshaping of his society for the benefit of all"), who came to regard NOORDIN as a loyal lieutenant who frankly expressed opinions often contrary to current thinking or political expediency. While Razak did not always accept his views, he appreciated NOORDIN's cogent presentations and his courage. He determined, therefore, to retain his trusted advisor beyond the mandatory retirement age of 55. Flattered when asked, NOORDIN agreed to stay for an additional two years. Actually this was only the first half of the prime minister's plan but because he died soon after it fell to the new prime minister, Dato' Hussein Onn, to reveal that Razak had wanted NOORDIN as his Auditor-General.

To NOORDIN this appointment was a surprise; to the Audit Department, a "closed" agency staffed by officers outside the general administrative service, it was a shock. All previous auditors-general had come from within the department, so breaking the tradition by appointing someone from Treasury, a frequent audit target, caused understandable apprehension. Of added concern was his lack of audit training or experience. But the prime minister wanted someone fresh and NOORDIN was an innovator and the pioneer of budget reform. Although unconventional, the appointment was not illogical: after years of allocating monies, NOORDIN needed merely to redirect his focus and concentrate Oil now the public funds were spent.

He initially moved with caution and his first audit in 1976 was conventional, and in his words "a pro forma thing." Throughout that year he studied his auditors and observed that they spent their energies on checking the legality of expenditures, ensuring that purchases were supported by receipts and that inventories matched. Proper bookkeeping and report writing were emphasized, with the consequence that the annual audit reports bulky documents of technical matters—were largely ignored and had little impact. "What's the use of all this," he thought. "Parliament, the end-user, is not concerned with accounting niceties, but with the successful implementation of policies." To make the audit report of value to parliament, the civil service and the public, he decided to introduce a performance auditing system which would complement program budgeting.

Government agencies had been defining their program objectives since 1969, but not enough had been done about measuring performance. The auditor-general, NOORDIN reasoned, was the logical officer to make that evaluation. He wanted an audit which would examine how decisions were made and which would focus, not on purchases per se, but on the impact of the expenditures. Performance auditing, as he envisioned it, would be a tool for identifying and resolving problems, thus increasing efficiency and promoting higher standards of public accountability. To accomplish this he needed a new mandate, so soon after he assumed office in May 1976 he argued for basic changes in the Audit Law of 1957.

Under that law audit officers could examine the accounts, but not the files, of the federation, states and public bodies as described by law. He persuaded the prime minister and cabinet that unless all records were analyzed, auditors could not adequately determine whether laws and regulations were obeyed and funds used efficiently and for approved purposes. An amended law incorporating his recommendations was passed by parliament in 1978. It authorized the auditor-general to ascertain whether accounts and records were properly and faithfully kept, monies applied to the purposes for which they were appropriated and programs carried out efficiently and economically.

He now had the legal authority to proceed. But first he discussed the implications with the then Deputy Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad whose responsibilities included the civil service. NOORDIN pointed out that with the new amendments he had power to question basic decision making—not the policies themselves but the process. He planned to use that power to ascertain if decisions were made responsibly or not. Mahathir responded, "You have the power; use it as best you can." NOORDIN knew he now had the political backing for his campaign to instill a sense of accountability in the civil service. But his approach was a positive one. He saw the ministries as clients, not as adversaries, and he believed that when the auditing department found fault it should also offer solutions.

The Audit Report for 1977, the first to bear his unmistakable stamp, was submitted in 1980, two years after the law was changed to give him substantive review of the organizations audited. It was not made public until 1981. The three to four-year delay, a common practice until then, was yet another indication why past audit reports had had little impact. As one member of parliament commented: "Taking a look at it was like looking at the archives." It was essentially history, and often the targets of adverse comments were either retired or dead. Today the Audit Department works on a different schedule. Audits are completed the following year and are tabled in parliament time for the deliberations of most ongoing programs.

Because the audits themselves were technical and ponderous, and because the media—dependent upon government licenses to operate and uncertain of the limits of official tolerance—were cautious, the publication of the annual audits received scant attention until the Audit of 1977 was made public in 1981. By this time Mahathir, who had often publicly declared that he would strive for a clean, efficient and trustworthy administration, had become prime minister. The media, now sure of its ground, analyzed the report thoroughly.

Besides a change in the audit direction, there was a change in the format of the government accounts. NOORDIN reasoned that what parliament needed was a summary of the accounts. He got the Treasury to submit the statements of accounts in three parts, the smallest of which, the summary, went to parliament. The other two were detailed documents reserved for internal use, or as supplemental records available to parliament upon request.

The Star, a Kuala Lumpur daily, published a special edition on the 1977 Audit Report and commented editorially, praising the auditor general for his report. "The first time in memory auditors have been popular," NOORDIN notes wryly. With The Star taking the lead, other papers followed suit and excerpts from the report were featured for nearly a week in the various language presses. The attention pleased NOORDlN who interpreted the publicity as evidence that the government, the civil service and the public were awakening to the relationship between public accountability and good government. "It is not just the public servants who need to be clean, efficient and trustworthy, but also those who benefit from public expenditures, including suppliers of goods and services to the government," he explains.

One headlined item revealed malpractice in contracts for supplying rations. The armed forces in the Bornean states of Sabah and Sarawak (East Malaysia) paid M$4.90 and M$3.90, respectively, for packets of instant noodles which the government could buy in Peninsular (West) Malaysia for 14 cents. M$962,000 could have been saved if the military had purchased the noodles in Kuala Lumpur and shipped them itself. The result of the audit exposure was that the department promised to check all items in a package bid against market prices in the future.

Poor record keeping at the Ministry of Education was blamed for unexplained differences in grant records amounting to more than M$84 (US$35) million. The audit also uncovered shortfalls in revenue collection. States lax in repaying loans and collecting rents from concessionaires were singled out for censure.

The official and public response to the 1977 audit was an encouraging breakthrough. The subsequent reports have been equally terse, factual and hard-hitting. Investigations have uncovered misallocations in a city hall low-cost housing scheme, loss of fertilizer enroute to paddy farmers, perennial losses in certain state corporations and funds squandered on a development state fair.

NOORDIN, however, sees the audit as a means to focus the attention of government, press and public on the need for greater public accountability. Its purpose is to show up weaknesses in the financial structuring of the various ministries and departments so that they can be addressed. He has faith in human nature and believes that financial abuses and wastage in public funds arise for the most part because of bad accounting and planning, not because of evil men. "I think one of the most essential characteristics for this job is to be able to see other people's problems," he has said. "After all anybody can be wise after the event."

Not all his "clients" appreciate his efforts on their behalf. The official organizers of the development fair likened his audit to "communist propaganda" Such stinging criticism is metwith a stoical response: "I am only doing my work safeguarding the financial integrity of the state. What I do is in accordance with the constitution."

As Auditor-General NOORDIN has no executive power, nor can he directly bring instances of obvious fraud or corruption to the police authorities for criminal investigation. "We are like doctors," he says of his audit team. "We can only diagnose the illness and prescribe the medicine, but we can't guarantee whether the patients will take it. " If the prescription is ignored, however, the problem will be highlighted in the following audit.

Malaysian law gives the auditor-general complete independence to operate. No politician, not even the prime minister, can order an audit or frustrate the results. His autonomy is strengthened by an appointment that can only be terminated after an inquiry by a tribunal of five High Court judges, including two chief justices and the head of the Supreme Court, who may declare him incompetent or incapable of discharging his responsibilities.

In the early 1970s federal and state governments began to participate more actively in commercial ventures, and Malaysia saw a proliferation of statutory bodies and government companies. A statutory body is an autonomous entity, established by a separate law, which engages in various enterprises under the terms of that law. Statutory bodies hold assets on behalf of the government, but are outside government budgetary control. The previous regulation concerning their audit called for an audit by the auditor general, or an auditor appointed by the board of directors of the organization in question with the approval of the relevant minister. "Naturally," NOORDIN notes, "most boards given the choice pick the second option." These audits lacked standardization and the timing of submission was erratic, making it difficult at any given time to comprehend the whole financial picture. Not without reason he suspected some organizations of less than honorable intent, so he lobbied the Treasury, the Civil Service and the Office of the Prime Minister for two years for legislation to bring the statutory bodies to account. His efforts were rewarded with the passage of the Statutory Bodies (Accounts and Reports) Act of 1980 authorizing the auditor general to scrutinize the statutory body accounts.

There are 102 such accounts. The Federal Land Development Authority, which has eight subsidiaries that are considered separate accounts, is an example of a statutory body, as is the Majlis Amanah Rakyat, MARA (Council of People's Trust). The latter's activities range from trading to education, each activity having been established under a separate law and therefore treated as a separate account.

Government companies, as distinct from statutory bodies, are not subject to the same independent evaluation. Such reports as are required go directly to the appropriate minister who is usually too busy, or otherwise not equipped, to verify the facts contained therein. NOORDIN would prefer that the government adopt a modified version of the Indian system and establish a board of audit under the chairmanship of the auditor-general, with representatives drawn from the accounting profession, academia, treasury and other government-designated professionals. The board would decide independently which government companies would in a given year be subject to thorough review. He is hoping to get such a law passed in the near future.

The need for such an outside evaluation was dramatically demonstrated in 1983 when foreign news agencies broke the story of a M$2 billion scandal at Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF), the Hong Kong subsidiary of Bank Bumiputra Malaysia (BBM), a government company. In July that year a Malaysian citizen, sent by the chairman of the BBM to do a special audit of the finance company, was found by the Hong Kong police to have been murdered. Press speculation linked the slaying to the alleged massive misappropriation of bank funds.

Bumiputra Bank operates under a license from the Central Bank of Malaysia with funds provided by the government. The bank's board of directors issued soothing statements, but as government money was involved, the public wanted action. The media was filled with commentary and interviews with knowledgeable citizens and officials. As the watchdog of government accounts, NOORDIN was naturally contacted by a reporter who printed his recommendation that a royal commission with power to hear testimony under oath and to subpoena documentary evidence be appointed to uncover the facts. His suggestion received wide public support and this was followed by a request from the prime minister for his assistance.

Mahathir rejected NOORDIN's suggestion for a royal commission, however, and opted instead for a bank-appointed committee of three with NOORDIN as chairman. As a private panel, it was not only legally powerless, but committee members' accusations were subject to libel laws. Staff limitation was another drawback and NOORDIN, who has maintained throughout that he was serving as a private citizen—not as auditor-general—has scrupulously refrained from using Audit Department personnel.

The committee lost no time in meeting with bank officials who promised assistance and instructed the BMF in Hong Kong to cooperate. On that promise alone the success of the investigation has depended. In March 1984 NOORDIN and his colleagues met with Hong Kong police authorities. From them they received confiscated BMF documents not directly relevant to the murder investigation. Slowly and methodically they analyzed the records and pieced together the chronology of bad loans. The size and nature of the loans contradicted prudent banking practice and at least one was made against the instruction of the parent bank. Some violated Hong Kong banking standards. They dated from the late 1970s when Hong Kong property prices were escalating and real estate investment looked sound. But in the early 1980s nervousness over negotiations between the People's Republic of China and Great Britain concerning eventual reversion of the crown colony to China sent real estate prices tumbling. More than US$1 billion had been lent to companies or individual speculators who subsequently went bankrupt. The painstaking work of documenting dates, amounts and principals took six months and formed the basis for the committee's interim report which the government made public in early November 1984.

The media found the report disappointing, confirming the skeptics' fears that such a powerless body was doomed to failure. The committee members, on the other hand, were pleased. The interim report formed the foundation upon which they could build their case, piling one fact upon another with the patience of a master mason until they had completed an edifice to house the record of malfeasance. The interim report, which was made public, was followed swiftly by a number of confidential "briefs" to the bank board of directors. They recommended legal action against a number of people for "criminal breach of trust and conspiracy." A new bank board (the previous body having resigned en masse) accepted their conclusions. This led to formal police complaints and multimillion-dollar lawsuits against ex-BMF executives.

For unraveling the mysteries of the scandal, NOORDIN and his two colleagues became instant folk heroes and were chosen by The Star as "Malaysians of the Year." The paper commented editorially: "Despite endless obstacles, the Committee did its job, and is still doing it . . . All this has given the Malaysian mood a fillip. Confidence is renewed. The feeling is reinforced that, given time things will be done . . . . Defeatism is defeated and the people are cheering."

This recognition followed just five months after the award of an honorary degree by the University of Malaya, of which NOORDIN, a former kampong boy with limited formal education, is most proud. The LL.D. was conferred in recognition of his "efforts to upgrade the level of financial management and to create an awareness for public accountability." Two years earlier on the 25th anniversary of Malaysian independence, Aliran Kesedaran Malaysia, a reform movement which promotes social justice, made him the first recipient of its "Distinguished Malaysian Citizen" award. Aliran noted that his had become a household name throughout the country." Additionally NOORDIN has been officially honored by his state and his nation. In 1972 he received the title of Dato' from the Sultan of Kelantan for his role in the development of Kelantan which was lagging behind the more prosperous states in the federation, and in 1979 the king conferred upon him the title of Tan Sri for his distinguished government service. He has also been recognized internationally by being chosen as a member of the Governing Board of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, and since 1982 as Secretary-General of the Asian Group of Government Auditors.

Unpretentious and unaffected by national attention, the auditor general still lives in the same modest house he bought as a mid-level bureaucrat, still drives a small car and is known to his friends and relatives as "Mat" which is the abbreviation of his given name, "Ahmad. " His leisure time is spent in reading, playing golf and with his family. Five of his children still live with him and his second wife, Fatimah binte Hashim, whom he married in 1974 two years after his first wife died. His three married children live nearby and often bring his nine grandchildren to visit. Although he is small, precise and dresses immaculately, NOORDIN is a relaxed, gregarious man who likes to tell a story or a joke. Once he starts talking he often can't stop, one thing leads to another, and reporters have discovered that an interview scheduled for an hour can sometimes stretch to two.

Underlying his good humor and bonhomie, however, is a firmness of character based on the moral standards by which he lives. Life is only meaningful, he says, if one faces and overcomes its obstacles and challenges. He frowns upon the tendency today to depend upon government and believes that it is more important to give to one's country than to benefit from it. This is particularly true of a public servant, he declares, whose concern should always be for the welfare of others.

September 1985
Manila

REFERENCES:

"AUDIT: The Ahmad Noordin A"roach:' Malaysian Business. Kuala Lumpur. November 1981.

"Bank Burniputra's Inquirer Wins Praise," Asian Wall Street Journal. Hong Kong. March 13, 1985.

"BMF Inquiry Comminee Talks About Its Work," The Star. Kuala Lumpur. January 18, 1985.

Chien, Doh Joon. Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin, Kampong Boy to Auditor-General. Selangor: Pelanduk Publications. 1985.

Citation for LLD. Honoris Causa, University of Malaya, read by Professor Madya Ooi Soon Kiam. August 25, 1984.

"I'm Only Doing My Work, Says Auditor-General," The Star. Kuala Lumpur. December 16, 1980.

"Malaysians of the Year," The Star. Kuala Lumpur. January 7, 1985.

Noordin, Ahmad. "Accountability and Audit in Government" Paper circulated to audit officers and major ministries and departments of the Malaysian Government, Kuala Lumpur. February 18, 1978.

______, "Objective of Performance Audit," Malaysian Audit Department. April 1978.

______, "Performance Audit as a Tool for Public Accountability." Presentation made to Group Discussion. Transcript. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, Manila. September 2, 1985.

______, "Public Enterprise and Public Accountability: Methodological Issues." Paper presented at the Seventh Malaysian Economic Association Convention, Kuala Lumpur. January 18, 1983.

"Panel: Need for Ample Checks and Balances," The Star. Kuala Lumpur. January 19, 1985.

"Taking Charge," Asiaweek. Hong Kong. January 18, 1985.

Interviews with Tan Sri Ahmad Noordin bin Zakaria and persons acquainted with his work.