Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz apologised to the Dewan today for misinformation pertaining to the proposed relocation of Parliament to Putrajaya.

In a written answer given to Kota Melaka MP on the matter, the minister in charge of parliamentary affairs said that the cabinet had already decided to relocate the federal legislature to the administrative capital of Putrajaya.

NONE This was contradicted later by Works Minister Shaziman Mansur on Monday.

Nazri ( right ) explained that the discrepancy arose because one of his officers sent the written answer to Parliament without checking it with him. This, he added, went against his standard practice of clearing all answers to be issued out of his office.

“For certain reasons the answer was not referred to me. I take full responsibility. I don't blame my officer for this, but this is an internal issue,” said the Padang Rengas MP.

Nazri added that the officer may have issued the written answer based on a different take on the cabinet discussions surrounding the much-needed repairs to the Parliament building.

“It all depends on the interpretations of the parliament officers, and the officer in question interpreted that the decision was made, despite it being only discussed in cabinet," he said.

He maintained today that the issue of whether to repair the old parliament building or build a new one is still being discussed at the cabinet level and no decision has yet been reached.

Public outcry 

Nazri, who is also de facto law minister, was clarifying a written answer issued from his office on June 9 this year, which stated that the cabinet had already decided on a new building for Parliament, which would come with a price tag of RM800 million.

This prompted a public outcry given the government’s efforts to convince the public into accepting subsidy cuts.

The answer was also contradicted by Shaziman when he denied on Monday that there are plans to relocate Parliament.

The works minister confirmed, however, that the Public Works Department (PWD) has been asked to look into temporarily moving parliamentary sittings to the under-utilised Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC).