CM criticises budget critics
KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman has taken those who criticised the state 2018 Budget to task.
"Some quarters complain that we did not allocate much for development of the state. They are wrong, out of the total RM3,040.5 million was allocated for development," he said, adding that RM1,339.6 million was for infrastructure and public facilities, RM509.7 million for agriculture, RM134 million for industries and manufacturing, RM228 million for tourism, RM422.5 million for the welfare and well-being of the rakyat, RM315 million for human resource and information technology and RM91.4 million for women and sports," he said.
Winding up for his ministry at the State Assembly sitting yesterday, the Finance Minister lamented that there were people who know how to read budget and there were those who do not know how to do it or were purposely belittling the state government's efforts.
Responding to a question from Sri Tanjong assemblyman Chan Foong Hin about the Special Allocation in the budget tabled, Musa said that it did not reflect an election budget.
The Special Allocation would continue even after the election and it would be for implementing new programs as well as continuing existing ones, he added.
Musa was also of the opinon that Tamparuli assemblyman Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburung had issued a misleading statement when he said that the state had tabled a deficit budget in the past four years.
"But annual audit shows that the government's revenue is always in surplus. So what does that mean? It is a surplus budget. Listening to Tamparuli assemblyman's debate speech, it is a big deficit budget for the last four years (but) this is a misleading statement.
"I know my friend, the Tamparuli assemblyman is an economist but how is that he does not understand between a surplus and deficit budget. And for the record we have tabled a surplus budget for 16 consecutive years from 2001 when I was the Finance Minister.
"The surplus budget shows that the state government has managed the state well. This is proven, we do not just simply say it, like the opposition which likes to lie," Musa said.
Musa also told the August house that the budget was above and beyond what was allocated to all the ministries which was the reason for the special allocation to provide assistance to specific sectors.
To Chan's claim that the budget was the same every year, Musa said the assemblyman was wrong to say that and by doing that, he was being unfair to the state government officers who worked hard to prepare the state 2018 Budget.
"You must understand that when planning the budget, we have many ministries in the government and each of them has its responsibilities. These ministries will ask for allocation and we give them.
"The difference is that sometimes they get less sometimes more, it all depends on our financial position. You have made a bad assumption when you claimed that the budget is the same every year.
“Do you know how long my officers worked when preparing the budget? It is not something to be taken lightly. They worked late into the night, it is not easy, ask any state, any country, you need a long time and a lot of indepth discussions.
“So we need to be grateful to government servants, not to look down on them as though they are not doing their job. Don’t belittle them,” said the Chief Minister.
“You hurt (the feelings) of my officers, you are very ungrateful. People work day and night to prepare the budget but you say ‘remeh temeh’. You enjoy a good night’s sleep but they do not sleep preparing the budget,” he stressed.
Musa said that there were regulations to be adhered to when doing the budget as it was not according to our whims and fancies. “We have to follow the MS ISO procedure,” he pointed out. He also said that there should be no comparison between Sabah and opposition government states like Selangor and Penang which had tabled deficit budgets.
He pointed out that opposition elected representatives asked him why the need for a surplus budget, why not spend and table a deficit budget.
“When we table a deficit budget, they will ask why the extra spending by the government but when we table a surplus budget, they will ask why surplus? They should be happy that the state has a surplus budget. This means that there is good governance and a strong financial position. Investors want to come because we have a very strong reserve.
“I started out as a businessman in 1972 and worked in Sandakan for a long time, before becoming a politician. I learned from the Chinese businessmen that it is important in business not to spend more than our revenue. This is a good approach, and this is what I practised when I became Finance Minister, we must keep some aside for a rainy day.
“You must learn how to save. Not wrong to learn from the Chinese businessmen who spend prudently,” he said.