Chong: Why 12 years of annual account statements only tabled this year?
KUCHING: Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen called on the Sarawak government to explain why it only tabled 12 years of financial statements on Tuesday (April 30) when it is expected to do so on a yearly basis.
According to him, the august House is obligated to scrutinise the 12 annual financial statements of accounts for the year 2006 to 2017, which ought to be tabled every year.
“Under the law, the government is supposed to table these accounts in DUN (State Legislative Assembly) to (allow DUN to) scrutinise the accounts. But this was not done for the past 12 years.
“In 2012, the Auditor General commented that DUN Sarawak should abide by the law to table these accounts, but it was not done until this year,” he said at a press conference at the DUN yesterday.
Chong said not only were the accounts not tabled as they were supposed to, but the Sarawak government needs to answer to some of the content of the accounts.
He queried why the local councils in Sarawak had lamented about not having the grants to improve roads in their respective areas, when the statements of accounts on road improvement works in Sarawak showed a culminating amount of over RM625 million as at Dec 31, 2017.
“This over-RM625 million is sitting in the bank, not earning any interest. But the common excuse given by the councils and JKR (Public Works Department) is that there is no allocation to repair roads.
“If such amount is saved in FD (fixed deposit) at three per cent, it is RM18 million a year (in interest). But when it’s in a current account, no interest accrues,” he said.
Based on the financial accounts, Chong said Sarawak had been getting federal grants since 2005 but such funding had not been fully utilised.
For the financial report in 2012, he disclosed there was a double entry of RM88 million which was readjusted the following year.
“I remember it because in 2013, there was a readjustment of this amount back into the trust account. How can such a large sum of double entry happen?”
He further pointed out that the 2017 report was supposed to come with ‘Lampiran (Appendix) A, B & C’ as stated, but these appendices were not tabled on April 29.
“I went through the reports. For the past years, all appendices were attached but not 2017. How can you table partial accounts in DUN? It’s something that is not proper,” he said, and wondered if the Minister of Finance or Second Finance Minister ought to be reprimanded or suspended for two to three days from the august House for the ‘mistabling’ of the accounts.