He was referring to former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s trip to Paris in November last year, in conjunction with the Paris Climate Change Conference. Badawi had said that the trip was funded by his not-for-profit body, Landskap Malaysia, with “some help” from other sources.

According to Ong, if the government had indeed paid for a significant portion of Abdullah’s trip, he should be accountable to Malaysians and explain the ways in which it had benefited the country.

“For the sake of transparency, Tun Abdullah should disclose the exact purpose of his visit to Paris and the outcomes which were achieved as a result of this visit,” the Serdang MP said in a statement today.

Demanding for disclosure on the unnamed sources, Ong questioned the exact amount paid by the government for Abdullah and his delegation.

“According to records which I obtained, Abdullah’s delegation comprised of himself, his wife, Tun Jeanne Abdullah, and nine other individuals including his personal physician, Datuk Dr Aizai Azan Abdul Rahim, his aide-de-camp, Supt Mohd Khairi bin Khairudin, and two bodyguards.

“Interestingly, according to the records which I obtained, which gives the rooming list and rental car arrangements for Abdullah’s delegation, the hotel and car rental payments for two individuals in the delegation, Dzulkifli David Abdullah and Dr Dzaeman Dzulkifli David, were labelled as ‘personal payments’,” Ong said.

He also said that information found on Landskap Malaysia’s website stated that Dzulkifli and Dr Dzaeman are on its Board of Governors. This, he added, seemed to indicate that the not-for-profit had paid for the duo’s hotel and rental car expenses whilst the rest of the delegation were underwritten by the Malaysian government.

The record Ong was basing his statement on showed that the former prime minister and his delegation had stayed at a five-star hotel in the heart of Paris. Abdullah and his wife had stayed in a vice-presidential suit while the rest of his delegation stayed in five separate deluxe rooms and one twin-sharing room.

“A quick search on the hotel indicates that…the total rental for Abdullah’s suite for one week would have been RM22,350 while the total rental for the deluxe room is RM10,644.

“The records also indicate that Abdullah had rented a Mercedez Benz S500 for one week and his delegation rented a Mercedez Viano (MPV) also for the same term..for EUR3,586 (RM16,854) and EUR2,523 (RM11,858) respectively.”

Ong attributed an approximate cost of RM115,000 for hotels and car rentals for Abdullah’s seven-person entourage, excluding Dzulkifli and Dr Dzaeman.