(Sarawak Tribune; August 14th, 2004)

MIRI – The State government has upgraded its computer programmes and system and is continuing to do so to ensure that there is no room for anyone to commit electronic fraud, said State Secretary Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Husain when met after the opening of a 3-day Information Technology and Management seminar at a leading hotel here, yesterday.

"Now we have improved our system to ensure that it is protected from fraud and mismanagement," he said.Apart from that, he said there was also a check and balance system implemented to ensure that the people entrusted with operating it did not abuse their expertise to cheat on the respective government agencies."The main thing is that we have managed to make the necessary changes to the system so that the loopholes are closed. We have taken care of that to ensure that cases of utilising IT development for illegal transactions would not be repeated," he assured.

On the number of IT related fraud cases, Aziz said several cases had been recorded but could not tell the exact figure off the cuff."We have already asked those involved to pay back the amount they have siphoned from the Government's coffer," he said.As to the amount of the illegal transactions, Aziz said it was slightly over RM500,000 and over a period of about two to three years.In his speech earlier Aziz reminded the participants that they have to accept changes and be prepared to take part in the process.

"I hope this seminar will bring about the desired changes in the mental and working environment of such quantity that our clear choice is to go for quality.

The quality of the people in the State should be directly inverse to the proportion of its quantity and one important trait of quality is preparedness," he said.He also reminded the participants to be meticulous and disciplined in their work in order to eliminate carelessness and bad decisions.

"Careful planning and preparation should not only be a discipline but a culture to be inculcated in the organisation itself," he added.Aziz also hoped to see the seminar participants become a better team worker and be able to facilitate collaboration in their respective organisations.