Answer on unspent RM333m raises more questions, says S’wak DAP
Sarawak DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen says this is irresponsible budgeting and just a gimmick to fool the people.
KUCHING: Second Finance Minister Wong Soon Koh’s statement that an unutilised allocation of RM333.1 million has remained intact in the consolidated fund for last year’s budget raises questions regarding financial reporting, said Sarawak DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen.
In respect of the approved RM905.9 million Minor Rural Project (MRP) fund allocation for 2015, Wong had stated last Thursday that an amount of RM572.8 million was spent.
He said the unutilised allocation of RM333.1 million had remained intact in the state’s consolidated fund.
“His answer contradicts directly the chief minister’s answer on the approved allocation for the MRP fund for 2015,” Chong told reporters here today.
Chong said Chief Minister Adenan Satem, in the state assembly last October, had said the total allocation approved for Minor Rural Projects in 2015 was RM655.9 million, whereas Wong’s answer confirmed that the total approved allocation for the MRP fund in 2015 was RM905.9 million.
“Why is there such a discrepancy of RM250 million in the ‘approved allocation for MRP fund’ between the answers given by the finance minister II (Wong) and finance minister I (Adenan)? Was Adenan trying to hide something?”
On Nov 19, the first day of the recently concluded state assembly session, Chong had raised questions on RM250 million, from the fund’s RM905 million total, which he claimed was unaccounted for.
Speaker Awang Asfia Awang Nasar then suspended Chong for the entire current session until Nov 30, for “unfounded and unsubstantiated” accusations.
Chong said today if Wong’s answer last Thursday was correct, then out of the approved RM905.9 million MRP fund in 2015, a large sum of RM333.1 million remained unutilised.
“That is 36.8% of the approved fund not utilised and it is a highly inefficient rate of implementation of projects and budgetary allocations by the Sarawak government.”
Chong said Adenan and Wong must “give the people of Sarawak a full account” of the utilisation rates of all the approved allocations and “explain their inefficiency”.
Chong said from Adenan’s or Wong’s answers, it could be seen that the government announced hundreds of millions of ringgit in allocations during the presentation of the budget.
“But, at the end of the day, when it comes to implementation, it falls far short of the announced allocation.
“This is irresponsible and untruthful budgeting. It is just a gimmick to fool the people about how caring and generous the government is when in fact the full amount of the approved allocation will not be used,” Chong said.
Chong also asked why the state government sought another RM250 million when it reported it had yet to fully utilise the initial RM655.9 million MRP fund approved in Budget 2015.
“Was it done for the purpose of image building and to trick the rural people into voting for BN during the Sarawak elections?”
Chong said it was wrong to suspend him and prevent him from raising further questions on the state budget.
“If Wong is so sure of his answers, why is he not confident enough to face my questioning in the assembly?
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“Instead, he chose to suspend me from the assembly and thereafter have a monologue on his own on the matter.”