COMMENT | Najib Abdul Razak has still refused to explain why there was only RM450 million left to the Pakatan Harapan government in the consolidated revenue account on April 30, 2018 – or a drop of 96 percent or RM11.41 billion – as compared to RM11.86 billion on Dec 31, 2017.
The former prime minister must think that Malaysians are so gullible as to believe his claims that the value of the ringgit is determined by the price of oil; that he is unaware that his government has failed to return GST and income tax refunds of RM35.5 billion back to the rakyat; that GST is still better and less burdensome than SST in terms of price rises; that the federal government does not face a fiscal crisis with more than an RM1 trillion debt; or that 1MDB is a sustainable company and good for Malaysia even though the government is forced to start paying 1MDB’s RM50 billion loans.
The 14th general election has proven that Malaysians will not be deceived anymore.
Najib also has difficulty in distinguishing the difference between the consolidated revenue account and consolidated fund by claiming that as at Dec 31, 2017, the government had RM18.06 billion to spend and not RM11.86 billion as I revealed earlier.
The consolidated fund position as at Dec 31, 2017 and Apr 30, 2018 are as follows:
Najib has wrongly assumed that the total amount in the consolidated fund is available for use.
Najib has failed the accounting test by confusing between the consolidated fund with consolidated revenue account. Legally, the government can only use the consolidated revenue account for its operating expenditures.
The Consolidated Revenue Account as of Dec 31, 2017 of RM11.86 billion has shrunk to RM450 million as of 30 April 2018 due to excessive spending for the period of four months from January 2018 to April 2018.
Clearly, this was “general election spending” to try to help BN win GE14.
Najib has claimed that he was no longer the Finance Minister when the unaudited monthly financial statements for 30 April 2018 were prepared and he was shocked to learn that the BN government has only left RM450 million in the consolidated revenue account for the new Pakatan Harapan government. This is not
true.
Najib should not feign ignorance of the distressed state of the country's fiscal position by insisting that BN had left tens of billions of ringgit to the new government when there was only RM450 million. Imagine having RM450 million to spend when our emoluments (salaries) and pension payments alone amounted to more than RM8 billion a month?
Or is Najib still at a loss to differentiate or understand what constitutes a consolidated revenue account despite being finance minister for 10 years?
Najib has crudely questioned the veracity of the April unaudited financial statements and even blamed me indirectly for manipulating the figures.
As the former finance minister, Najib should know very well that the monthly financial statements of the government are independently prepared by the Audit Department. He should not question the credibility of the monthly financial statements.
Najib again failed to realise that the new finance minister had not been sworn in yet when the unaudited monthly financial statements for April 30, 2018 were prepared.
He should instead explain the drastic drop in the consolidated revenue account over the four-month period from 31 December 2017 to 30 April 2018, leaving the new Pakatan Harapan government with little to spend.
LIM GUAN ENG is the finance minister of Malaysia.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
