Johor will not go bankrupt as claimed by certain parties because its financial standing is sound, with the State Consolidated Funds higher by RM274.42 million or 118.6 percent, said Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman.     

The fund is at RM505.1 million compared to RM231.39 million in 2009 with an increase of RM158.36 million in the Consolidated Revenue Account he said.   

In his wrap-up speech at the state assembly in Kota Iskandar in Nusajaya today, he said, for the first time, last year’s State Revenue Statement breached the RM1 billion mark at RM1.02 billion, with an increase of RM272.75 or 36.3 percent compared to 2009.  

“The Auditor-General issued the state government a clean certificate based on the 2010 Johor Financial Statement and that makes it nine years in a row we have managed to maintain the performance,” he said.

abdul ghani othman bangsa malaysia 061106 talking Abdul Ghani ( left ) said the government spent RM1.01 billion for the people during its five-year period which included building 29 religious schools, and constructing and upgrading 2,445 km of rural roads.  

The state government’s public debt went up by 8.9 percent making it RM1.38 billion for 2010 compared to RM1.27 billion in 2009, he said.

The increase was due to the higher debt incurred for the water supply project, which was from RM1.06 billion in 2009 to RM1.2 billion in 2010, he explained.

Johor Corporation also recorded an increase in its debt from RM71.05 million in 2009 to RM84.04 million last year, he added.   

“However, public debt for low cost housing projects recorded a decrease to RM54.26 million last year compared to RM68.93 million in 2009 and debt for other projects also went down to RM33.46 million in 2010 with RM64.44 million for the year before,” he said.

- Bernama