MP SPEAKS If you had listened to what opposition MPs said in Parliament last week, you would think that the Auditor-General’s 2011 Report was centered mainly on leakages and wastage of public funds in BN-governed states.

But truth is stranger than fiction, or so I have found out.

azlan My attempt to level the playing field by speaking up against the mismanagement of Pakatan Rakyat-administered  states was met with thunderous objection in the House. No fewer than five opposition MPs stood up to prevent me from finishing my speech.

All is well, for the Hansard never lies. When chaos got the better of my words, I decided to write this analysis in the spirit of informing the public that life in Pakatan states is not necessarily a bed of roses either.

This article is not intended to deliberately exclude wastage and leakages in BN states, which provide some pretty glaring examples, but to show that Pakatan states are guilty of the same charge.

Kelantan

Let’s take a look at the severe mismanagement of Program Ladang Rakyat by the Kelantan government. The programme is not miniscule by any standards. It involves 19 projects in total, covering a massive area of 81,095 acres (1.5 times the size of Kuala Lumpur no less!).

azlan The programme was initially set up to help the poor by promising (for lack of better word) a monthly dividend and salary of RM200 and RM700 respectively. On top of that, it planned to provide free accommodation and to stimulate the employment rate.

Of course, promises are meant to be broken. All of these promises have never materialised. The poor who placed their hopes in this programme are still stuck in status quo.

When two projects under the programme failed to meet their targets, the state government - through Perbadanan Pembangunan Ladang Rakyat Kelantan (PPLRK) - leased out the remaining 17 (covering 76,780 acres) to 16 selected companies.

But as the audit report so aptly pointed out, no specific committee had been set up to evaluate the ability or past performance of these companies. Much worse was when, apparently, the 16 were suggested by none other than the chief executive office of PPLRK himself! Ah, the joys of running you own empire must be intoxicating, I believe.

To compound the problem, audit analysis of the agreements with the companies showed that the terms were lop-sided and were heavily stacked against the state government's interests.

For example, over the 20-year lease period, the companies are set to gain a total net profit of RM1.6 billion. However, they would only pay the state government RM421 million in lease payments. The estimated net profit of the companies is a staggering RM59 million a year for the next 20 years!

azlan Next, who are the stakeholders behind Liziz Standaco Sdn Bhd? In yet another controversy, the audit report took the state government to task for offering 1,000 acres of land to this company in 2003, for a 12-year riverbank development and beautification project.

In consideration of this, Liziz Standaco must return to the state government assets amounting to RM389.09 million. But as far as the audit report is concerned, the state government has only received a paltry RM45.7 million to date. The remaining RM343.4 million was outstanding at the time of writing.

Eyebrows were raised in concern when the audit report also stated that Liziz Standaco had pledged 13.52 acres of the land in question as collateral to secure a RM75 million loan. While it is not immediately clear whether the company had used part of the RM75million loan to pay the RM45.7 million to state government, it can in many ways suggest that the company is not on the best financial footing to navigate the project to the shore of success.

Kedah

Now, let’s shift our focus to Kedah. Around the same time as the controversial National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) started its cattle business, a wholly-owned entity of the state government, Kedah Corporation Bhd (KCB), entered into a mammoth joint-venture project with an Australia-based company to rear and import cattle from Down Under.

KCB paid RM1 million to its partner of choice shortly after the agreement was signed. Unfortunately, the cattle project - which was mired in controversy from the get-go - never got off the ground.

Some might argue that KCB’s RM1 million scandal pales in comparison to that of NFC which involved RM250 million. But I disagree. Wastage, by any other name, is still a wastage - especially so for state with a small economy like Kedah.

If we insist on going by statistics, the RM1 million is tantamount to 0.10 percent of Kedah’s 2011 budget of RM1 billion. Seen this perspective, we also find that the 0.10% is at par with NFC’s 0.11 percent wastage vis-à-vis RM230 billion of the federal budget.

azlan KCB was also frowned upon when it made generous payments on two failed projects. The first involved the payment of RM4.26 million to a company in Papua New Guinea for an oil palm project which subsequently failed. The second involved a payment of RM1.6 million to a consultant company to “arrange”a US$44 million offshore loan earmarked to fund the same Papua New Guinea investment.

Apart from failing to raise the US$44 million loan (which has since put the project in jeopardy), KCB marched ahead to borrow an additional RM3 million from five local companies. What is appalling is that the borrowing had been done without the approval of its own board!

The audit report further ticked off Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kedah - and rightly so - for paying a whopping RM1,500 per unit for the repair of loose electrical distribution boards in low-cost public housing projects. The government-approved market price is capped at RM15.45 per unit. The difference per unit in this case is a staggering RM1,484.55.

The Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kedah also overpaid by 31 times for power sockets in its low-cost public housing projects. It paid RM1,500 per unit when the government-approved market price is only RM50.18. Simple arithmetic will show that this constitutes overpayment of RM1,449.82 per unit.

Selangor

Last, but not least, Selangor. The buzz around the over-hyped Skim Tabung Warisan Anak Selangor (Tawas) died down when the audit report pointed out that the scheme was woefully underfunded and had failed to live up to its promise. The pledge to give RM100 in the form of Simpanan Tetap to every Selangor-born individual will remain another unfulfilled promise.

NONE Since the inception of the scheme in 2008, 19.4 percent (or 60,972 of 313,706) of those born in Selangor had submitted applications. Only 21,918 were approved.

Selangor allocated RM13.5 million for Tawas. But of this, about RM4.5 million was meant for operational costs, setting aside only RM8 million for the scheme itself.

In the education sector, the Selangor government incurred losses of RM39.69 million in 2010, and RM13.56 million through Pendidikan Industri YS Sdn Bhd which operates Universiti Selangor.

These are only examples of leakages and wastage in Pakatan states. If you read the 2011 audit report thoroughly, you would find many more similar examples.

Futile attacks on Sabah, Sarawak

As the 13th general election approaches, Pakatan has intensified its drive to capture votes in Sabah and Sarawak. It goes without saying that the 56 parliamentary seats in the two states will be the knight of hope to both Putrajaya’s incumbents and aspirants.

azlan So, Pakatan has launched a mission to undermine the administration of the two states.

Ironically, such attacks have proved to be hollow year after year when the audit report keeps giving both states top marks for finance management and fiscal policies.

In the 2011 report, the auditor-general accorded the highest commendation ( ‘sangat baik’ , very good) to only one state - Sarawak - while Sabah has maintained the second-best status of ‘baik’ (good) of previous years.

The 2011 Consolidated Fund accounts of the Sarawak and Sabah governments were the highest among all states at RM18.5 billion and RM2.66 billion respectively. Selangor was in third place with RM1.94 billion, while Penang was ranked fourth with RM1.13 billion.

If we look at the 2011 state revenue statistics, Sarawak topped the list with RM6.6 billion, followed by Sabah (RM4.4 billion). Selangor was fourth (RM1.6 billion) and Penang in seventh position (RM602 million).

ABDUL RAHMAN DAHLAN is the BN member of parliament for Kota Belud. This article was provided by The Malay Mail .