Make gov’t financial statements public for sake of transparency - Najib

The Finance Ministry should make the Consolidated Revenue Account's financial statements from January to July this year public, said former premier Najib Abdul Razak.

This is in light of claims that the funds in the account shrunk to RM450 million in April this year, from RM11.86 billion in December last year.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Najib, who is also the former finance minister, said this should be done for the sake of fairness and transparency.

"The ending balance in the Consolidated Revenue Account has never gone down below RM18 billion and civil servants in charge of cash flow management will ensure that there are enough funds to act as 'buffer' to pay the salaries and pensions of all civil servants.

"If the balance dips below the said mark, then the government will publish treasury bills to seek short-term loans, for periods of three months, six months, or one year. The money from the bills will be in, in just a matter of days. Why was this not done?

"Although the monthly account statements were never made public, and I can no longer request to view the statements, to my knowledge, the balance at the end of March 2018 was about RM18 billion. It is impossible for the balance to go from RM18 billion last year to RM450 million in April this year," he wrote.

Najib, who is Pekan MP, noted that there is a daily cash flow from the Inland Revenue Board, the goods and services tax (GST) collection, and other sources.

According to him, there were no other “big-scale" payments that took place between January and April this year, besides the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) payout in February, and all other outflows of cash would have been recorded.

"If the Finance Ministry insists that the funds in Consolidated Revenue Account have dropped to RM450 million, for sure they can refer to the flow of the cash and not ask me where the money had gone.

"Since it's unfair to accuse the BN government, when we (BN) can no longer monitor, or even refer to monthly financial statements, especially for the month of April, I urge the Finance Ministry to make public the details of the accounts.

"They (the ministry) should be transparent and reveal all the statements between January and July this year for public scrutiny. Only then it will be fair," said Najib.

On Sunday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had revealed the drastic drop in the consolidated revenue account over the four-month period from Dec 31, 2017, to April 30, 2018, leaving the new Pakatan Harapan government with little to spend.

Accountant-general Saat Esa had also confirmed Lim's remark, saying it tallied with the department's records. -Mkini