PKR MP: Harapan spending for supplies, services higher than BN's

PARLIAMENT | A Pakatan Harapan MP has raised concerns over the government's increased allocation for procurement of supplies and services in 2020 as compared to the amount in 2017.

Wong Chen (Harapan-Subang) pointed out that back in 2017 under former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak's administration, the government had 1.6 million civil servants with a supplies and services spending of RM34.7 billion.

This meant that the Najib administration spent an average of RM21,700 of supplies and services for every civil servant, he said.

"The whole world knows about the 1MDB case and also about the many auditor-general reports on the corruption and leakages during the BN administration.

"But now when we look at the Pakatan Harapan figure for supplies and services, I am worried.

"With 1.4 million civil servants, I understand many have been changed to contract workers, the supplies and services for 2020 has increased to RM38.5 billion," Wong said in the Dewan Rakyat today during his debate on the Budget 2020 which was tabled last Friday.

This figure is higher than during BN's administration, he said, as the average was now a RM27,500 spending on supplies and services per civil servant.

"I would like a detailed explanation on this matter because if not, I am afraid that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will have proceedings for 100 days next year on corruption and leakages," said Wong, who is a member of the bipartisan PAC.

Though he agrees that the Budget 2020 was better than last year's, he pointed out that the RM54 billion for development expenditure was only 0.4 percent of the country's GDP.

The fundamental question, he said, was whether a spending of 0.4 percent could have a tremendous impact on the growth of the country's economy.

"If not, then let's not pretend that the budget is a silver bullet for all our economic problems today.

"The silver bullet is not the budget. The silver bullet is the political will needed to reform the broken system of government," he said.

There was also a need for full commitment against corruption, which Wong described as a "terrible human condition".

One way this "human condition" could be contained was to ensure that all parliamentarians and political parties were given enough resources, he said.

He suggested the government increased allocations for all MPs, both from the ruling and opposition parties to RM800,000 a year.

"This huge increase in funding for all MPs' offices will only swallow an additional RM130 million of the budget," he said.

At the same time, he also proposed the government provide direct funding to political parties by paying them RM10 for every vote received by the party.

For example, he elaborated, in the 14th general election, the total number of voters was 12.3 million so if the government were to pay out RM10 per voter to political parties, it would only spend RM123 million.

"That is to say, with an additional investment of RM250 million a year, we can get rid of 90 percent of the human condition of corruption and in the same process, the government is bound to save between RM10 to RM20 billion in terms of corruption and leakages of government resources. - Mkini