The authorities should question former youth and sports minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek on the ministry's RM67.6 million bill for the 2012 Youth Day celebrations, says Anwar Ibrahim.

According to the Auditor-General's Report 2012, the ministry spent four times more than what was allocated for the event, including splashing RM1.6 million to hire the K-Pop performers.

The initial allocation was RM15 million, Anwar said.

'It's a shocking abuse of power and a waste of public funds. I think (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) MACC should question him," Anwar added.

The opposition leader said it was a political decision and the political masters must be held accountable for such waste of public funds and not pin the blame on civil servants alone.

"I urge the MACC to take immediate action to penalise the sharks and not just persecute small fries," he added.

'A symptom of Najib's failure'

Anwar said he experienced "deja vu" reading the report and according to Pakatan Rakyat’s own extrapolation, the government had wasted RM23 to RM26 billion during that year (2012).

"The report shows a consistent pattern of irresponsibility, poor governance and weak management," he said.

Calling it a trend, he blamed the lackadaisical attitude in spending government money by ministries as a symptom of the failure of the Najib administration’s government transformation programme, all due to the lack of "political will."

The issue of the bloated expenditures for Youth Day celebrations has been thrown back and forth since it made the news.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin first said that the ministry paid for the K-Pop concert after the sponsors pulled out.

NONEAfter this, Ahmad Shabery (right) retorted that a sponsor did pay the money but it was done through a government account and that the auditor-general’s report had erred on this.

Yesterday, Auditor-General Ambrin Buang maintained that the expenditure was made using government allocation and had called the spending "imprudent." 

"I am not absolving civil servants, but there is a tendency of the government blaming civil servants. It's a political decision... people can be duped into believing them," Anwar told reporters.

A DAP parliamentarian lodged a report with the MACC office in Penang today, based on details revealed in the Auditor-General’s Report 2012.

Asked what Pakatan was going to do about the auditor-general’s findings on state funds managed by the Pakatan Rakyat, Anwar said the weaknesses were “minimal”, and that a special committee has been set up to discuss and take follow-up actions on every single comment given by the auditor-general.

This would be for Selangor, Penang and Kelantan, Anwar added.

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