KUCHING, Nov 28: DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen has urged Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian to disclose the details of the RM9 million special allocation fund.
In a press statement today, Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyman, asked Dr Sim to disclose who are the recipients and how much each had received from the said special allocation fund.
Chong also asked Dr Sim on the amount of his senator’s allocation from the federal government and from the state government in 2017.
“Since he claimed that if the amount is not sufficient, every BN (Barisan Nasional) ADUN (elected state representative) can still ask for more, in addition to the RM9 million, how much he has asked for and got from the state government in year 2017?” he asked.
Dr Sim had reportedly said that “the BN state government allocated RM5 million in Rural Transformation Plan (RTP) and RM4 million in Minor Rural Project (MRP) funds, totaling RM9 million; if that amount is not enough to meet the need of the constituency, every BN ADUN can still ask for more allocation.”
Chong said he had asked Dr Sim during the recent State Legislative Assembly sitting on the distribution of this special allocation fund and Dr Sim had answered that “the fund came from the Sarawak government and there are also some from the federal government”.
Chong charged that the so-called answer from Dr Sim was no answer to his question at all and only reinforced that the latter has something to hide.
Chong said it was only right for Dr Sim to list out the recipients and the respective sums received as the allocations are from public funds and so there must be clarity and transparency about every ringgit spent or distributed.
“If Dr Sim and the state government are so confident about the propriety of the distribution of the MRP and RTP funds, then all the more the details on the utilisation of such funds should be open to scrutiny by every member of the public. Otherwise, there will be adverse inference by the public on the integrity of YB Sim and the BN state government,” he added. — DayakDaily
