Federal government revenue last year amounted to RM264.415 billion, an increase of RM31.532 billion or 13.5 percent compared to 2018.
According to the Auditor-General's statement on the Auditor-General's Report on the 2019 Federal Government Financial Statements released today, operating expenses approved last year amounted to RM260.547 billion, while actual expenditure amounted to RM263.343 billion.
Expenditure due to national debt (interest, dividends, and other charges) amounted to RM32.933 billion or 12.5 percent of operating expenses.
"This expenditure increased by a total of RM2.386 billion or 7.8 percent compared to 2018 which amounted to RM83.050 billion because it was not budgeted under the management allocation but paid directly from the Consolidated Loan Account," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
The Auditor-General said apart from that, the development expenditure of ministries and federal departments that had been spent in 2019 was RM54.173 billion or 104.6 per cent compared to the allocation approved in 2019.
He said the audit analysis found that the Federal government experienced a deficit of RM51.370 billion with a deficit to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio of 3.4 per cent.
“The deficit is covered by new loans amounting to RM138.559 billion and of the total loans, RM83.05 billion or 59.9 percent has been used to repay mature debts.
"Federal debt amounted to RM792.998 billion, an increase of seven percent compared to RM741.094 billion in 2018, the debt-to-GDP ratio is RM52.5 percent," he added.
He said 96.4 per cent of the federal debt was domestic debt and only 3.6 per cent of external debt, the total debt and Federal liability in 2019 was RM1.080 billion.
Meanwhile, an audit of the state government's financial statements for the year ended Dec 2019 found that all 13 state government financial statements were given an Opinion Without Reprimand.
The audit analysis shows that all the financial statements show a true and fair view of the financial position of the state government and the accounting records have been maintained completely and updated.
“The National Audit Department has carried out 28 compliance audits at the state government level involving one ministry in Sarawak, 23 departments and 14 state agencies in 2019/2020.
"Among the main findings of the compliance audit is the occurrence of irregular payments, irregular revenue collection and weaknesses in government procurement," according to the statement.
The report on the financial statements of the Federal government 2019 will be uploaded on the website of the National Audit Department after its presentation in the Dewan Rakyat.
The public can view this statement by browsing http://www.audit.gov.my starting today after 10 am.
