SUPP feels the heat over ‘unaccounted’ RM11 bil

Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP), hoping to redeem itself in the general election, must explain the secrecy behind the 'missing' RM11 bill from the state coffers.

KUCHING: Sarawak DAP’s flogging of the ‘missing’ RM11 billion from seven years of the state budget has got rival Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) all hot and furious.

Demanding that DAP ‘show proof’, SUPP Youth secretary-general Wilfred Yap said: “If the RM11 billion had indeed gone into a black hole as alleged, then that would amount to a criminal breach of trust, corruption, corrupt practice and abuse of power.

“DAP is being very irresponsible to the public at large in its intention to try to create or paint a picture of corrupt practice or abuse of power by the Sarawak government.

“They should produce evidence to either the police or MACC for investigation. Otherwise DAP should stop and refrain from manipulating and confusing the public just for votes.”

Yap was reacting to opposition DAP’s flush of flyers on the issue. Tens of thousand of copies of the flyers printed in English, Chinese and Malay have been distributed in Kuching, Bau, Serian and Sri Aman.

According to the flyer, launched late last week, since 2006, more than RM11.373 billion which was about 50% of the state development expenditure of RM23.281 billion, have gone into a ‘black hole’.

The flyer and its content is now posing a major threat to SUPP which is aiming to redeem itself in the 13th general election after a disastrous outing in the state polls.

In a statement today, Yap who is tipped to contest the Stampin seat, challenged the opposition to name those responsible for the alleged malpractice.

“The figures quoted are from accounts of the Sarawak government which had already been audited by the National Audit Department.

“Any accountant worth two cents would understand that there is no such thing as itemisation of each individual grant or allocation to approved agencies or itemisation of each individual item of expenditure of approved agencies from the grant or allocation.

“The approved agencies have already been referred to as corporations, companies or organisations which had been approved to promote the economic, social or educational development in the state.

“It is also clear that the approved agencies are in turn audited by qualified accountants both from the public and private sectors. The lumps sum figure does not mean that it had gone into a black hole,” he said adding that the issue might undermine his chances of retaining the seat.

DAP’s rebuttal

Reacting to Yap’s statement, Sarawak DAP secretary general Chong Chieng Jen urged Yap to do his homework before shooting his mouth.

“If Yap does not how to read the budgets or where to find them, I can show him. He can fix a time with me so that I can bring him to the State Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) where there are stacks of budgets in the DUN library,” said Chong, who is the Kota Sentosa assemblyman.

Chong, who is the incumbent for Bandar Kuching, is tipped to contest against Yap for the Stampin seat in the coming election.

“Yap has asked me to show proof. All the amounts are stated in the past eight years of the state budgets. If Yap does not know how to read the budget, I can show him.

Chong said that when the opposition assemblymen wanted to know the recipients of these monies, the standard answers issued by the government were that the monies were approved for economic, social and educational development of these approved agencies.

“All these are evasive answers. Any person having reasonable intellect will know the answers are evasive what more to say Yap who is legally trained.

“As a lawyer, he should know that these types of answers in the court of law will be regarded as evasive answers trying to hide the truth.

“So I urge Yap to do some work. He should ask his superior in SUPP, the Second Finance Minister Wong Soon Koh or even the BN chairman and Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud where these monies have gone to.

“We are talking about RM11 billion in state budgets. A sum as small as a few thousands of ringgit will be clearly stated going to which department and for what purpose what more to say when the amount is more than RM11 billion,” he said.

But Taib who is the state finance minister refused to reveal the so-called ‘approved agencies’ which have received the more than RM11.373 billion to promote economic, social or educational advancement of the state.

The flyer had alleged that the money could have gone to private companies or cronies or family companies.

On the question of these funds having been annually audited, Chong said: “The scope of by Auditor General’s job is merely to ascertain whether the budget has been approved by the DUN and whether the procedures have been complied with.

“Once the procedures have been complied with they don’t go further as to who are the recipients,” he said.