The bill for last year's World Youth Day is actually a RM67.61 million, Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said today.
He said according to the Auditor-General's report released this week, the Youth and Sports Ministry had spent an additional RM12.61 million under an assistance programme.
"The money was transferred to the organisers of the Youth Day through youth organisations like the Malaysia Youth Council," Sim said in a statement today.
In July, Sim had urged the minister to provide more details on the cost of the celebration, which had increased from RM15 million to RM55 million.
Sim, of the DAP, pointed out that in the last Parliament session, the ministry had applied for a RM12 million supplementary budget for last year's Youth Day.
"And now, the AG's report says that an additional RM12.61 million was spent," he added.
He called on Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to explain the drastic increase in cost for the World Youth Day celebration and to give a breakdown of all the expenditure with the list of sponsors and contractors involved.
"Khairy, as the minister, should look into this seriously as it involves the people's money," he said, adding, "Are there other costs that the ministry is hiding from the public?"
The World Youth Day celebration last year came under scrutiny after the AG's report revealed that the government had spent RM1.6 million to bring in three South Korean pop groups to perform at the concert.
Yesterday, Khairy admitted that the ministry was forced to pay for the K-pop concert held last year after the initial sponsors backed off.
However, earlier today, former sports minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek claimed that the ministry had received RM20 million from domestic and foreign corporate sponsors for the event.
He said the money was banked into the National Sports Council's account by the sponsors, and the auditor-general's department failed to consider that in their report.
very nice work i like it thank admin
ReplyDeleteAbdul Sami