PUTRAJAYA, Sept 3 — Any Ministry of Finance (MOF) officer who fails to flag discrepancies spotted in its agencies will be blacklisted from holding any position with any statutory body in future.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim made the announcement at the monthly MOF assembly today.

"If the officer sees any discrepancies among the agencies, and they don’t say anything, that officer will be blacklisted from assuming any position in any statutory body in the future.

"So there is a sense of responsibility, if we don’t give orders, they don’t do anything, in the context of breaching laws,” Anwar, who is also finance minister, said.

He said it was a lesson from his previous tenure as finance minister back in the 1990s.

He said the moral of this story is that all officers who are in charge of respective agencies must carry out their responsibilities as they represent the Treasury.

"When I was finance minister back then, a junior officer came to me as he saw that there was a suggestion made by a senior officer that had gone against existing regulations.

"The senior officer said the junior officer was trying to supersede the action taken by the senior officer, but I chose to listen to both sides. I called the junior officer to give me an explanation.

"I then decided to support the junior officer as I saw what he did was the right move,” Anwar related.