Penang CM: BN's official trips more costly

The state government spent RM1.2 million for trips overseas during its three and a half year tenure in Penang, said Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

He said from Mar 2008 until Mar 2011, the state spent RM146,284 for 20 visits involving the chief minister and RM1,066,697 for 123 visits involving the deputy chief minister and the state executive council members (exco).

Lim (left) added that when BN led the state, it spent RM149,326 for 10 official visits involving the chief minister and RM782,988 for 56 visits involving the deputy chief minister and other exco members.

This amount was for the years from Mar 2005 to Feb 2008, said Lim.

"As a comparison, the average cost for the chief minister's official visits under the BN government was RM14,932.60 compared to RM7,314.20 under the Pakatan government," he added.

The Penang state legislative assembly opened today with a question and answer session in the morning and the tabling of the state budget for 2012 in the afternoon.

The assembly will break tomorrow for the Deepavali celebrations and resume on Oct 31 to Nov 4.

Lim, who is DAP national secretary general, was answering a question by Sungai Bakap assemblyperson Maktar Shapee, who asked for a comparison between the BN and Pakatan state governments' expenditure on official visits for the duration of three years.

Maktar, who is a PKR assemblyperson, wanted to know the amount of public funds spent on the chief minister's and state exco trips overseas.

Arif Omar Shah (Seberang Jaya - Umno) asked how much had the state spent for trips involving the families of the CM and the state exco.

Arif asked Lim to list down the expenses for the overseas trips during Pakatan's three years rule in Penang but Lim said he did not have the information yet.

At this point, Seri Delima assemblyperson RSN Rayer got up to ask if the state had used any public funds to purchase a luxurious diamond ring for family members.

Umno assemblypersons started to protest and questioned the relevancy of this question but Rayer insisted that it was related to state budget expenses.

"Defacto Law Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz had admitted that a RM24 million diamond ring entered the country for the prime minister's wife," he said.

"I am just asking the chief minister whether Penang had spend any public funds for such a ring," he clarified.