Klang cleared 648 payments on day parliament was dissolved

By Chan Kok Leong
www.theedgemalaysia.com/political-news/148937-glaring-discrepancies

SHAH ALAM: The unusual speed with which the annual allocation for state assemblymen was used up prior to the 12th general election last year continued to be the focus of the Selangor Select Committee on Competence, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) investigation today.

On the second day of the public inquiry into how Selangor assemblymen had spent their allocations, state government officials testified that nine seats under the Klang district, barring the Sri Muda constituency, had fully utilised their allocations in the first two months of the year.

The "extraordinary" payments looked glaringly hurried when it was revealed that 648 of the payments were made on the day that then prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced the dissolution of parliament and the state assemblies.

Unlike Tuesday's relatively cool inquiry, today's sitting was much more heated, and Selcat chairman Teng Chang Khim almost lost his temper at one point.

Unhappy with several responses by Klang District Officer Bakhtiar Hussin and his subordinates, Teng called a 15-minute break so that the officers could "think carefully" before they resumed giving their testimonies.

"You are digging your own grave. If you continue to answer like that, you can be cited for negligence," he warned Klang Land Office finance officer Ali Abdullah before calling for a break.

The Selangor Speaker was also dissatisfied when Bakhtiar refused to give his opinion on whether the many transactions in his district were prompted by last year's general election.

Teng had repeatedly asked Bakhtiar whether he had received instructions to expedite the payments prior to the general election.

To all the questions, Bakhtiar said: "My job is to ensure that the applications for money complied with the standard operating procedures. I cannot say if the spending pattern was right or not."

"Don't you think there is a problem here?" asked Azmin Ali, the state assemblyman for Bukit Antarabangsa.

"I'm not sure," Bakhtiar replied. "I only approve and process payments for projects which are already done."

Azmin: "Do you think that the applications were made with the knowledge that the state assembly would be dissolved on Feb 13?"

Bakhtiar: "I'm not sure."

The inquiry heard that of the 1,561 applications for funding, 648 payments were issued on Feb 13.

The inquiry further heard that Meru assemblyman Datuk Jael Ismail made 121 applications on Feb 13, all of which were approved on the same day. Sementa assemblyman Datuk Abdul Rahman Pahlil's 191 applications on Feb 13 were similarly approved that same day.

Former Selangor speaker Tan Sri Onn Ismail, who used RM579,000 of his RM600,000 allocation, made 219 applications for donations on Feb 13 amounting to RM547,500. Of these, 207 were approved on the same day.

In reply to a question, Bakhtiar said it was "coincidental" that so many payments were made on Feb 13, when parliament and the state assemblies were dissolved.

However, assistant accountant Ismail Husin said that the department had performed "overtime and worked till midnight" to process the payments.

Ismail had earlier testified that their office "can only process 300-400 payments a day".

Questioned on why payments were made on Feb 13, Ali said that his department did not know that parliament had already been dissolved.

Incidentally, Bakhtiar served as the returning officer for the parliamentary seat of Kapar during last year's election.

When asked how 648 payments were made on Feb 13, none of the officers provided an answer.

During the inquiry, it was revealed that assemblymen can use their allocations for four purposes — local projects (up to RM20,000), people-friendly projects (up to RM8,000) and donations to non-governmental organisations or NGOs, associations and individuals (up to RM2,500).

Selangor elected representatives are entitled to a RM500,000 allocation each to use in their constituencies.

The Speaker and Deputy Speakers are entitled to RM600,000 each. By February 2008, 93.25% of the year's allocation of RM5.3 million to the 10 constituencies were already used up.

Besides Teng, Azmin and Saari Sungib, the other Selcat members are Selangor Deputy Speaker Hanizah Mohd Talha (Taman Medan) and Edward Lee (Bukit Gasing).

The public inquiry began yesterday and is scheduled to end Monday.