Kuala Lumpur City Hall's (DBKL) draft budget for 2015 has reportedly been placed under the Official Secrets Act (OSA).

 

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar tweeted this today while at the KL mayor's closed door briefing today with Federal Territories parliamentarians at Menara DBKL.

 

"Brimming with excitement at the sight of the detailed DBKL (draft) budget during our meet with the mayor today. Then, 'Oh, it's under OSA'," she wrote on her Twitter .

Meanwhile, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng ( left ) strongly disagreed with DBKL's decision to embargo the draft budget until the end of the year.
 
“Before they drafted the budget, DBKL had several round-table discussions with the residents' advisers (RA) and had received feedback from the people.
 
“So, why make it so secretive now?,” he said, speaking to Malaysiakini after the budget meeting.
 
Lim also added that this secrecy makes DBKL and the mayor Ahmad Phesal Talib look very suspicious.
 
“By making the draft budget a secret, they (DBKL) can hold unknown transactions that the people have no say in,” he reasoned, saying that it is taxpayers' money DBKL is using.
 
Since the details of the briefing is under OSA, quite a number of MPs were hesitant to comment on certain issues discussed during the briefing.
 
However, the MPs lauded DBKL's initiative to include a detailed report during the briefing.
 
“This is unprecedented on DBKL's side as we were only invited to listen in during the previous years.

"This time, our offices were sent detailed reports on the draft budget three days before the briefing. This is a good thing,” Lim said.

 
DBKL courted controversy last year when it unexpectedly hiked its assessment valuations for Kuala Lumpur by over 100 percent, causing a massive outcry from the public.
 

Some argued that with a previous surplus budget, DBKL had no justification for the massive hike.

 

After prolonged protests by residents and MPs, the assessments were eventually reduced and the rate was also cut to reduce the nett increase that KL landowners have to pay.

The MPs are expected to send in their input and recommendations by Oct 20, where DBKL will once again go through them before coming up with a finalised version of the budget.
 
Ahmad Phesal will make an official announcement of the budget in December of this year.

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