Seven Pakatan Harapan assemblypersons today questioned whether the Negeri Sembilan government expects them to ask the rakyat to return funds already channelled to them for their benefit.
This followed Menteri Besar Ismail Lasim’s announcement yesterday, instructing 17 former and current Harapan assemblypersons and two constituency coordinators to return their advance allocations for July to September.
In a press conference, Nilai assemblyperson J Arul Kumar said most of them had already spent the funds received in June by distributing them through various channels.
Arul added that those who had not used up their advance constituency allocations by June 30 had already returned the unspent balance to the state coffers as required.
“The issue now is that we have already channelled the allocations to the rakyat. We did not use them for ourselves. We gave to the rakyat through NGOs, associations, and individuals within the allowed time frame.
“Now you are asking for the money back. Do you expect us to ask the recipients to return what they have received?
“This is one thing that we hope the state government can review,” Arul, who acted as the group spokesperson, told a press conference in Seremban this morning.
The six others present were Yew Boon Lye, Nicole Tan, Siau Meow Kong, Choo Ken Hwa, Chew Seh Yong, and Dr G Rajasekaran.
No small change
In a press conference yesterday, Ismail said all 17 Harapan assemblypersons, including six who lost their seats in the state election, as well as two constituency coordinators, have to return their July to September allocations within a month.
According to a Bernama report, the menteri besar said the repayments were required as they no longer held any official functions following the dissolution of the state legislative assembly on June 5.
The allocations, which comprised funds for service centres and public welfare, were reportedly channelled to the state lawmakers and the Paroi and Labu constituency coordinators.
Each lawmaker has now been ordered to return RM174,000, while each coordinator must repay RM150,000.
Arul told the press conference that the amount was not a small number for the assemblypersons to fork out.
He stressed that Harapan assemblypersons had distributed the allocations to help the rakyat and denied allegations that they were used for political purposes.
‘We did nothing wrong’
The elected representatives also insisted they did nothing wrong as the allocations had been lawfully approved by the Negeri Sembilan state exco meeting on June 3, which was led by then menteri besar Aminuddin Harun.
Arul said it was normal for assemblypersons to seek the menteri besar’s office to disburse their quarterly allocations in advance, as happened in this case.
Arul, who was a member of the state executive committee at the material time, claimed they also did not know when the state legislative assembly would be dissolved when approving the allocation.
He said there weren’t any instructions preventing the assemblypersons from using their allocations after the legislative assembly was dissolved, and it was not specified how much they could use per month.
“If there was any rule that says we cannot spend (constituency allocation) after the dissolution of the state assembly, we surely would have stopped.
“But there was no such instruction. There was even a letter saying we are allowed to peruse (the allocation); that’s why we did.
“And when we received instruction not to spend any more of the allocation after June 30, we followed the instruction. Although the nomination day was only on July 18, I believe no one spent their allocation after June 30,” Arul said. - Mkini
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