Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has accused the previous BN administration of excessive spending in the months before the May 9 general election.

He said it has not been a walk in the park for Pakatan Harapan since capturing Putrajaya five months ago with regard to the financial constraints.

"The Consolidated Revenue Account has dropped drastically from RM11.86 billion in December 2017 to RM5.73 billion in January 2018, RM5.34 billion in February 2018, RM3.91 billion in March 2018 and only RM450 million in April 2018," he said in a statement.

He pointed out this was a drop of 96 percent or RM11.41 billion in only four months.

"Clearly, this excessive spending by the previous BN government amounting to billions of ringgit monthly were carried out in the months preceding the 14th general election,” he added.

According to Lim, accountant-general Saat Esa confirmed that only monies in the Consolidated Revenue Account can be spent on government expenditure, and not from the Consolidated Fund.

He said Saat further confirmed there was only RM450 million left to spend on April 30, 2018 when BN handed power to Harapan on May 9.

“There are those who claim otherwise, citing as proof the funds in the Cash Account that BN left Harapan with billions of ringgit in the Cash Account as of April 30, 2018.

"This is unfortunately not true. Not all monies in the Cash Account can be used for government expenditure.

“The Cash Account together with the Investment Account both form a common pool of cash collected, deposited/invested, and held for three separate accounts i.e. Consolidated Revenue Account, Consolidated Loan Account and Consolidated Trust Account," he added.

However, Lim said the Harapan government was able to meet all its monthly financial commitments, including the RM8 billion in monthly salaries and pensions of civil servants.