Terengganu Deputy Menteri Besar Mustapha Ali today said there was no need for the state executive council to meet for the past three weeks as all urgent matters had been resolved, despite claims otherwise by the state opposition.

Mustapha said the 'missed' meetings while he and Menteri Besar Abdul Hadi Awang took off for the duration posed no problem as authority had been properly delegated towards the smooth running of the state.

Dismissing the allegations by state Opposition Leader Abdul Rashid Ngah that there were urgent matters that needed the exco's attention, Mustapha said he was yet to be informed of any upon his return.

Yesterday Abdul Rashid was quoted by the New Straits Times as stating that the absence of the weekly exco meeting held on Wednesdays, was a sign of weakness in the administration.

He said Abdul Hadi should have appointed other senior members to chair the meeting in his absence as the exco was required to decide on urgent matters especially those related to land.

Rare occasion

However, when contacted today, Mustapha refuted Abdul Rashid's assertion.

"There was no need to hold a meeting as all urgent matters had been discussed and resolved. I think he (Abdul Rashid) is just trying to find faults in our administration. Everything is fine. I guess they created the issue because they have nothing else to harp on," he said.

When asked, Mustapha said it was not often that the state exco went without its weekly meeting over a long duration.

"This was a very rare occasion, that both the menteri besar and I took a long leave. But we made sure that all pertinent matters had been resolved," he said.

Meanwhile, Kemamam member of Parliament Abdul Rahman Yusof said the absence of the weekly exco meetings did not mean that the whole administration was going to collapse.

He said unlike the previous administration where there was a bottleneck of authority in which everything rested solely in the hands of the menteri besar, the PAS-led government has been delegating authority.

"For example, on timber concession issues, there is a committee. It is no longer the MB alone (that decides on that)," he said.

Abdul Hadi, who just returned from Mecca yesterday, could not be contacted as he was still resting from his trip, according to his press secretary Zahari Muhammad.