For lying about flood fund, DAP wants Ahmad Maslan to apologise

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan has been urged by opposition party DAP to apologise for falsely claiming that Putrajaya spent RM800 million on the flood victims. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 17, 2015.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan should apologise for misleading the public with his "false claim" on the amount Putrajaya has spent on flood victims, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang said today.

He said early this month Ahmad claimed Putrajaya spent RM800 million on the flood victims, but in a recent interview with Malay Mail Online, the National Security Council (NSC) secretary Datuk Mohamed Thajudeen Abdul Wahab said only RM500 million was allocated for that purpose.

Lim said the Cabinet approved RM41 million so far for the families of flood victims who stayed at relief centres, and the remainder of the RM500 million was still unspent.

"Maslan should apologise for claiming on January 5 that the federal government had spent RM800 million to help flood victims when only RM41 million had been spent till now," said Lim in a statement today.

He said Ahmad's initial announcement created an uproar, with many in disbelief that such a large sum had already been spent, given the conditions of the flood victims.

Lim recalled how he had demanded that Ahmad reveal a full and detailed audit of the RM800 million as he did not believe that such an amount had been spent on the flood victims.

"Even the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad was taken aback by Maslan's announcement, saying that PAC would be asking the Finance Ministry and the National Security Council to explain the RM800 million that had been spent on flood relief efforts," said Lim.

He added that the PAS leader in charge of the Terengganu flood relief operations, Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi, was surprised at Ahmad’s remark as he could not see any federal funds used for the flood victims.

Lim said in light of Thajudeen’s statement, Maslan must explain where he had gotten the RM800 million figure from, Lim said.

"From Thajudeen's interview, it would appear that the government had not even spent RM100 million on the flood victims. The flood victims could not feel that hundreds of millions of ringgit had been spent on them," he said.

He added that Malaysians were entitled to an explanation as to why the clarification only came 11 days after Maslan's claim.

"If this is a reflection of the efficiency of the public service, it is no wonder that in all three phases of the worst floods catastrophe in living memory, flood response, relief and reconstruction,

"The federal government's performance are so abysmal with many areas of flood devastation hardly undergoing any change although the floods catastrophe was more than three weeks ago."

Lim wanted to know how much of the RM500 million had been spent in each of the flood-stricken states, and how the remainder of the sum would be spent.

In his interview with the news portal, Thajudeen said families of flood victims who did not go to relief centres, would also get RM500 each.

He said it could be distributed as early as next week if the NSC received a recipient list from the Welfare Department in charge of registering people at the relied centres.

The next of kin of flood victims who died during the floods will receive RM5,000, making it a total allocation of RM125,000 for a death toll of 25 people to date, said Thajudeen.

Thajudeen said the Cabinet will decide on what to do with the remainder of the RM500 million fund.

- TMI