Zahid, don't divert the budget issue to MCMC

 

YOURSAY | ‘Ministries cannot spend beyond budget.’

Zahid denies overspending, quips about MCMC allocation

OrangeCat19: Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should really look at the table provided by the Finance Ministry and see how much of the approved budget his Rural and Regional Development Ministry has used, instead of diverting the issue to the MCMC.

MCMC, under chairperson Salim Fateh Din, has recorded its strongest financial performance on record, bringing in a net income of almost RM2 billion to the country and lowering operating costs by 21 percent.

The country is fast developing its digital infrastructure to close the digital access gap between urban and rural areas. We are in the digital communication age, and if the country doesn’t invest robustly in it, we are really losing out.

Hence, it is also timely that Zahid’s Rural and Regional Development Ministry is cooperating with MCMC’s Nadi (National Information Dissemination Centre) initiative to fast-track public service delivery.

Coward: Zahid’s “mistake” was to publicise the issue of his ministry budget. Last week, he vented his frustration over funding disbursements during his ministry’s monthly assembly.

Given the timing and the fact that he is a shrewd politician, I think he was forced to play this low card.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim deliberately “squeezed” him this time by sticking to the rules.

Zahid did not have a choice but to blame the Treasury, as his ministry is not paying its contractors and they are grumbling. He needs to deflect the blame.

MCMC is probably chosen as his target because he knows it is the second-largest “overspending” ministry. Zahid probably feels he can get back at Anwar via Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

Zahid didn’t get more allocations before additional spending. This is what all ministers are expected to do.

Instead, he spends first and gets allocation later. That opens him to being gamed by the finance minister. Anwar took the opportunity to pounce on him.

A ministry cannot spend beyond budget. He found it out the hard way. What he has deliberately avoided saying is that a ministry can commit beyond its allocated budget, and that is what his ministry has done.

CHY: Unbudgeted expenses can be avoided if you select contractors who complete projects without substantial variation of orders or skip those that run into problems. Also, you don’t spend 100 percent of your allocations in the first half of the fiscal year.

Keep 30 percent for the second half and 10 percent for the last quarter of the fiscal year. That is called cost control and contingency planning.

BlueShark1548: Zahid, like a true gentleman, has denied the allegations made against his ministry. However, Anwar has urged his ministry to amicably settle the payments issue.

Anwar is the finance minister; can he answer whether Zahid’s ministry had overspent its allocation? If so, why was it allowed to overspend?

Nature: When caught with his pants down, Zahid is trying his best to argue. Zahid, fact is fact, and the Finance Ministry has been monitoring your excessive spending.

Anwar can always ask the audit team to check, or else the MACC will take the lead.

World Citizen: Instead of explaining the numbers given by Treasury secretary-general Johan Mahmood Merican, Zahid goes on the attack.

He can't seem to manage the finances of one ministry. How can the people trust this guy to become the prime minister of the country one day?

People must think many times before they vote for Umno; otherwise, the nation will suffer, like what the United States is going through now. Hello, my friends, think about it.

Knucklehead2: Zahid, stop insulting Malaysians’ intelligence. The Finance Ministry itself confirmed your ministry has overspent for four consecutive years - that’s not “impossible”; that’s a documented fact.

To claim “no budget is perfect” is just a lazy excuse. Budgets are law, passed in Parliament, and ministries are bound by them. If contractors aren’t being paid despite allocations being fully disbursed, that points to mismanagement inside your ministry, not the Treasury.

And quipping about MCMC’s budget while your own ministry bleeds beyond its limits only shows how serious you are about accountability.

Apa nama: Zahid, instead of just issuing a statement such as this, you need to show how you spend within the given budget. There is no such thing as being unable to meet the allocation under the budget and needing to overspend.

This has been going on for three years, from 2023 to 2025. The Finance Ministry has shown in a table that you overspent, but here you are denying it. You need to counter with your own table on how the money was spent.

Citizen22: This is the problem with some older set of ministers. They think they are the boss. No accountability.

The taxpayers are the boss. Ministers must follow the planned budget. That’s why we have an annual budget. Full-stop. - Mkini