Permata accounts must be subject to scrutiny

Permata’s accounts should be subject to scrutiny by any elected representative of the people, especially when it involves the wife of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Rosmah Mansor, who allegedly has a penchant for expensive handbags and jewellery, would at least have to show more integrity and transparency. She should be leading by example.

I would like to also ask if Permata is used as a front as someone’s automatic teller machine (ATM)? There are really no offensive questions but only questions that need to be answered with a degree of integrity.

I hope the assumption about the ATM is wrong especially because we have someone as honourable as Rosmah, but the question is hard to be erased from people’s mind unless Permata is transparent about its income and expenditures.

Apart from the government allocation, are there also corporate donors who contributed towards Permata? Who are they and how much did they contribute towards Permata? The funds have to be openly declared, especially since we are talking about openness in funding.

Being transparent with the financial accounts is definitely a virtue, not as what Minister in Prime Minister’s Department and former Transparency International-Malaysia chairperson Paul Low had once made a controversial and weird statement that transparency is akin to being a prostitute baring all.

Because of this, people do not give any credence to Low’s National Consultative Committee on Political Funding (JKNMPP) which he intends to make into a law.

Before it is even made into a law, we have to ask Low to advise Permata to provide Damansara Utama assemblyperson Yeo Bee Yin an audited copy of the financial accounts to see if there could be some foreign funding as well. After all, Low appears to have gone against his infamous statement by now promoting an open book.

All sources of funding should be declared, and Permata is not exempted, although I have to admit that many of us still do not know the name of the great Arab prince who donated RM2.6 billion into Najib’s personal accounts. All we know is that the US Department of Justice has accused Malaysian Official 1 of being a kleptocrat.

Why Rosmah should order the release of audited accounts?

There have been too many allegations involving the couple, Najib and Rosmah; therefore, attempts by Yeo to ask for a copy of the accounts since 2015 should not even be denied.

It would only raise further suspicions when an agency using public funds cannot show the accounts in a transparent manner. It is like the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) auditor-general’s report which has been palced under the Official Secrets Acts.

There is no reason why anything hidden will not be revealed in broad daylight. Even the auditor-general’s report on 1MDB is currently available online from the Sarawak Report portal. Anyone who wants to read the report only need to download VPN Express, an App which makes it possible for us to access the sites banned by the government or search for the mirror website for Sarawak Report.

There is a saying, “Be brave, if you have nothing to hide.” This should be the principle to guide Permata in its handling of public funds. If there is nothing to hide, the accounts should be released to Yeo.

In the first place, have the accounts even been audited the Auditor-General’s Office in the past two years? No? If not, why not? Are there exemptions to be made for an agency where Rosmah is the patron? I doubt so, and I think even Rosmah would be happy to have the accounts properly audited.

Therefore, her aide Rizal Mansor is doing a great disfavour to Rosmah by refusing to allow Yeo to at least scrutinise the accounts and let us know that Permata has a clean bill of health.

This is akin to saying that there is something to hide. I am sure this is not what Rizal has intended it to be, but I was surprised that he could say words to that effect.

In fact, this would immediately raise a lot of concerns over the way how government allocations are being spent. In 2015, through the 2015 Budget, Najib had allocated RM30.1 million for Permata.

When Yeo was pursuing the Permata accounts, Rizal should not beat around the bush, but address the request for Permata’s audited accounts. After all, that is what is expected of elected representatives.

Why the special treatment?

There is no reason why Permata should be parked under the Prime Minister’s Department, when there is already a full-fledged Women, Family and Community Development Ministry looking after the welfare of the people.

Are we saying that the minister is ineffective such that Permata should be placed under the Prime Minister’s Department?

Rosmah can be the patron, but the unit should come under the supervision of a proper ministry, instead of the Prime Minister’s Department.

Why does it have to have a special allocation? What about the other more pressing needs involving thousands of wheelchair-bound people, the hearing impaired and the visually impaired people? Are they born less human than any of us? Certainly not!

These people, including children born with disabilities, also deserve positive intervention by the government. Why does only Permata receive over RM30 million in budget allocation?

It does not go well with 95 percent of the country’s disabled people’s population, if only 5 percent get special treatment. The others should also be allocated equally to share the RM30 million allocation.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.-Mkini