Shredded documents, unfinished food found in offices after govt moved into Putrajaya
KUALA LUMPUR: There were oversized garbage bags filled with shredded documents and a “snowstorm” of loose papers on the floor in the corridors of power discovered by the new government after Barisan Nasional was ousted from Putrajaya.
This was revealed by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in an interview with the New York Times (NYT) published on Thursday.
The article highlighted how Dr Mahathir and his aides stumbled on the alarming sight upon entering the government offices.
“There was even half-consumed food left by former occupants in a hurry to get out.
“At the Finance Ministry down the street, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng found computers in which even the highest-ranking bureaucrats were locked out of certain accounts.
“In some cases, vital files were accessible only to a single person: (former prime minister Datuk Seri) Najib Razak, who had also served as finance minister.” He told NYT that the new government found the country in worse financial shape than he and his allies had feared.
He said the government consolidated accounts and numbers from various departments within two weeks and found that the national debt was more than RM1 trillion.
“That is 80 per cent of Malaysia’s gross domestic product.
“Any organisation that had money, the previous government found the means to take the money,” he said, adding that this included “theft from national coffers extending beyond 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), to an astonishing array of governmentfunded initiatives, from a rural development programme and a plan for religious pilgrims, to a provident fund and a coal mine in Mongolia”.
“All have been looted by the previous government,” Dr Mahathir was quoted as saying.
NYT also quoted Lim as saying that he had nightmares piecing the puzzle together.
“They were just robbing the country blind.
“I’m having nightmares practically every day, wondering what landmines will I tread on the following day.”
Dr Mahathir was quoted as saying he acknowledged that cleaning a political machine riddled with corruption had been taxing.
“We have asked so many people to resign, we are left with a skeleton crew,” he said.
He was also quoted as saying that the government had already accumulated enough evidence to charge Najib and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.