BN backbenchers club (BNBBC) today accused Pakatan Rakyat-controlled states of indulging in creative accounting to make themselves look good in the auditor-general's report.

NONE BNBBC deputy head Abdul Rahman Dahlan (right in photo) said this was done by transferring funds from the states' trust accounts into their consolidated account and pass off the  money as revenue.

"Every state government has a trust account where money is allocated from the very beginning for specific purposes. The money may come from the state or federal government.

"For example, if there is a project requiring RM100 million, they put that amount in the trust account then just before the audit they move the balance - say RM 60 million - from the trust account into the state consolidated account.

"It's creative accounting," he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby this morning.

Abdul Rahman, who is also a member of the Public Accounts Committee, said this was especially true in Penang and has asked the auditor-general to investigate the figures.

"This is a matter of taking money from your left pocket and putting it into your right pocket, then saying that's new income," said the Kota Belud MP.

According to the Auditor-General Report 2011, Penang's revenue had spiked to RM368.98 million in 2011 from RM205.22 million in 2010.

However, this was mirrored by a drastic increase of extra money from the trust account amounting to RM126.11 million in 2011 compared to RM28.43 million in 2010.

Meanwhile, Ledang MP Hamim Samuri dismissed reports that Pakatan states, especially Selangor and Penang, were top in the country in terms of financial performance.

He said instead, the consolidated state fund should be used as a benchmark for financial performance.

"This means that Sarawak is the best at RM18.4 billion while Sabah at RM2.6 billion and then only is it Selangor at RM1.9 billion and Penang RM1.1 billion," he said.

'Pakatan messed up too'

The BN MP also highlighted a number of weaknesses in the management of Pakatan-led states reported in the auditor-general report.

An example, he said, was the fact that the Kedah government lost RM1 million in a failed project to import cows from Australia.

nfc office front "This is just like the National Feedlot Corporation scandal. Even though some people say RM1 million is a small amount, but in the context of a small state like Kedah, it is 0.1 percent of their budget.

"Even though the amount in NFC is RM250 million, it is similarly 0.1 percent of the federal budget," he said.

Another example, added Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan, was Selangor's failure to properly spend RM537 million of federal allocation under the Malaysian Road Records Information System (Marris) for maintaining road infrastructure in the state.

"The Selangor government only spent 58 percent of the federal allocation for maintaining roads. Where has the other 42 percent gone though? In Hulu Selangor, several roads have yet to be resurfaced because there is not enough money from the state government.

"Furthermore, I was also informed RM5.15 million of this money meant for roads was given to ailing Universiti Selangor (Unisel)," he said.

"We are not saying there are no weaknesses in BN states but this is to show that there are also weaknesses in Pakatan states and are not as good as they like to make it out to be," Abdul Rahman chipped in.

 

Let's talk about the 2011 audit report