Sabah's 2017 financial status good

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah's financial standing for 2017 was good, according to the Auditor-General's 2017 Series 2 Report released yesterday.

According to the report, the State Consolidated Fund rose by RM390.64 million or 16.2 percent to RM2.80 billion in 2017 compared to RM2.41 billion in 2016.

The Sabah Consolidated Fund also recorded a surplus of RM56.66 million in 2017, resulting in the accumulated balance rising to RM3.80 billion or 1.5 percent.

“Revenue collection also increased by RM444.44 million or 12.9 percent to RM3.89 billion in 2017,” the report said.

It also reported that operating expenditure increased by RM454.36 million or 13.5 percent to RM3.83 billion that year.

Investments in fixed deposits and state deposits amounted to RM2.51 billion, while investments in the Public Corporation and Statutory Bodies at the end 2017 totalled RM6.58 billion, the report said.

“The two investments accrued returns of RM112.67 million and RM140.43 million in interests and dividends respectively. The arrears payment for Claimable Loans dropped to RM802.32 million.

“The Public Debt arrears payment also declined to RM29.60 million while revenue arrears increased by RM41.10 million to RM534.89 million in 2017,” according to the report.

The report also stated that a total of 7,270 projects were drawn up under the 11th Malaysia Plan, including the Chief Minister's Department's special/small projects, to be implemented by 11 ministries/ departments.

It also said the implementation rate of projects under the Plan was good, with 6,525 projects or 89.7 percent completed, 587 projects of 8.1 percent now underway and 158 projects or 2.2 percent yet to start.

“The expenditure for 2017 was RM997.54 million or 78.2 percent of the allocation approved by the state government,” the report stated. - Bernama