On 31st March 2006, Dato’ Seri Abdullah Bin Hj Ahmad Badawi launched the 9th Malaysian Plan for the period 2006 to 2010. Since then till today, the nation has only heard of announcements after announcements by the PM and there is no actual implementation of the plan.
At the mid-term review of the 9MP on 26th June 2008, Badawi said in Parliament that our economy had a growth of 6.1% but he didn’t tell the nation that Malaysia’s inflationary rate was well above 6.1%, which meant there was ZERO growth. Badawi also said that the Government will “spend another RM30 billion on its five-year development plan … to cover the costs of inflation, rural projects and increased food production.” Badawi also didn’t tell Parliament how the Government is going to raise the RM30 billion.
This extra expense to the original RM200 billion allocation is not a small sum and the rakyat has to finally bear the cost somehow – through higher charges and taxes.
Granted that the cost of implementing existing projects has risen as a result of the rising prices of materials and what-not, we hope the administration has in place firm ‘checks and balances’ where leakages can be prevented.
We still remember the Auditor-General Report where tools and equipment, among a long list of other items, were sinfully over-priced. It will be a great waste of public funds if the projects are not implemented properly and responsibly during such hard times faced by the rakyat.
So the question of the week is:
To ensure that the 9MP is executed effectively and efficiently without rampant corruptions to protect the rakyat’s money, which was raised through the recent petrol price hike, should the government have in place strict measures to ensure good governance, transparency and accountability at all times?
Soalan Mingguan WR Anda #15
Pada 31 March 2006, Dato
