'RM100 for students not from 2012 Budget'

Even though the RM100 aid to students is announced as part of the 2012 Budget, its implementation for this year does not utilise funds from the Supply Bill, which has not yet been passed by Parliament.

This was stated by Deputy Education Minister Wee Ka Siong today when winding up for the ministry during the committee stage of the ongoing 2012 Supply Bill debate in the House.

Funds for the RM100 being disbursed now are from a special allocation from the current year's budget, approved by the Finance Ministry and the National Audit Department, and specifically from the Treasury's Main Settlement Account Financial Grouping, Wee said.

The funds are then transferred into a trust account to be distributed to the schools, he said, all right and proper, procedure wise.

Wee was responding to opposition attacks that it is improper for the ministry to spend funds announced in the budget, as it was still being debated in the Dewan Rakyat.

The RM100 for students issue led to near pandemonium in the House, with opposition MPs such as Azan Ismail (PKR-Indera Mahkota), Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang) and Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) rising to purse the issue further, incessantly bugging Wee as he tried to move on to other matters.

However, the deputy minister simply plodded on with his winding up, saying he had satisfactorily answered the question, while deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee worked to calm the House by asking the opposition MPs to stand down, since the question had been answered, despite the opposition not being happy with it.

'State education officers not diligent'

Earlier in the debate, Abdul Manan Ismail (BN-Paya Besar) touched on the allocation to commission more education officers, complaining that state education department officers were not diligent enough in doing their jobs.

"It is better to have less officers who know what they are doing then having more officers who don't know how to to their jobs," Manan argued.

He broached the example of a school in his district, where the roof had leaked.

"When we go to meet the officers, they simply say there is no allocation (to repair), and they do not do anything at all to request for additional allocations."

Manan said the officers gave convenient excuses without showing any effort at all to help with the problem, and he also said the officers at district and state education offices often displayed favouritism in allocating assistance.

"They seem to appreciate their friends (only). Their favourites are put first, schools that are not favourites are left behind," he lamented.