3 Selangor Pakatan reps hauled up over discrepancies

The Selcat committee, with Teng in the middle have been quizzing assemblymen all day over their allocation expenditures. – Picture by Jack Ooi

By Neville Spykerman - The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, Feb 1 — Three Selangor Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers faced a state watchdog committee this morning to explain spending discrepancies in constituency allocations.

The Special Select Committee for Accountability, Competency and Transparency (Selcat) called assemblymen Ronnie Liu (Pandamaran), Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (Sri Setia) and Shuhaimi Shafiei (Sri Muda) to detail their expenses for their respective constituencies.

Liu of DAP, who is state executive councillor for local government and research, was the first to testify this morning.

Nik Nazmi, who is the political secretary to the Selangor Mentri Besar, and Shuhaimi, both from PKR, testified later.

During the public inquiry, which was telecast “live” over the state government website, Liu struggled to explain how he had spent 99 per cent of his RM600,000 annual allocation for small projects in the first half of last year.

Selangor Speaker Teng Chang Khim, who heads Selcat, ticked him off several time for arguing with the committee and for not following decorum by taking sips from his water bottle, until he (Teng) had to order that it be taken away from him.

Teng also called for a short recess midway into his testimony to allow Liu to have a drink and to cool down as he was getting increasingly agitated.

Teng also had to remind his fellow DAP lawmaker several times that he was testifying under oath.

As an executive councillor, Liu said he received an additional RM100,000 as compared to other PR lawmakers who received half a million ringgit. But he admitted that none of his funds were used for small projects, because of overwhelming demands for donations.

Among the donations he was grilled about were three durian festivals he funded, including one which cost RM10,000, and RM30,000 which he gave St.John’s Ambulance which he said was to help buy vehicles.

Facing the committee... Nazmi (left) and Liu.

Liu justified the durian festivals were “highly successful” community programmes.

However, he ran into problems explaining three cheques of RM10,000 donated to St.John’s Ambulance because letters seeking the donations indicated the money was for a recycling programme and a blood donation drive.

“To my mind, the money was to help buy vehicles.” he said adding that the arrangement was made by his former personal assistant (PA), even though he had signed the approval for the donations.

Liu also testified that his funds ran out because there were 300 associations, and 21 schools besides religious organisations in Klang who needed funds .

However, Teng, whose Sungai Pinang constituency is among nine in the Klang District, pointed out that Liu was the only lawmaker who had finished his state allocations in just six months.

Teng also pointed out that Liu’s explaination he was hard pressed to keep up with the demands from associations and religious organisations was not completely accurate because only 30 associations and 10 religious organisations received funds from him.

This was disputed by Liu and Teng ordered him to list out loud each of the organisations which had received funds from him last year.

As it turned out, 43 out of 168 of Liu’s contributions were made to associations and religious bodies but he pointed out that this amounted to 25 per cent of his allocation.

Liu also blamed his previous PA for not informing him that 99 per cent of his annual allocation had been used by the middle of last year.

“My assistant only told me that we were running out of funds.”

However, Selcat committee member Saari Sungib pointed out that prior to the general elections in March 2008, most Barisan National (BN) lawmakers had also spent their annual allocation in just two months and that Liu should have known better.

Liu said he himself had spoken out on the issue but his concerns were whether the funds reached those it was intended for and not the timeframe of when the money was spent.

But this annoyed Teng who reminded Liu again that he was testifying under oath.

Liu revealed that in order to cater to “demands” for donations, after his allocations had run out, he either made pledges to pay organisations from next year’s allocation or even borrow money which he would return after getting funds from the District Office.

He said he had pledged RM120,000 last year, which he needed to pay from funds from this year’s allocations and pointed out that those receiving the funds did not mind waiting.

“I feel freedom should be given to lawmakers to decide how the funds are spent.”

Shuhaimi listening attentively. – Picture by Jack Ooi

Meanwhile, both Nik Nazmi and Shuhaimi managed to give Selcat convincing explanations as to why they had overspent their allocations, by breaching the 70 per cent trashold allowed, in the first half of last year.

Shuhaimi told the committee that there had been three floods in his constituency in December 2008 and January 2009 and he had used allocations for small infrastructure projects as well as donations for the victims.

Nik Nazmi also testifed that his constituency had floods and that he had used his funds to repair a religious school and surau.

The Selcat inquiry into improving the management and use of state funds by lawmakers ended today with their testimonies.

Teng said a total of 12 main witnesses were called during the entire inquiry, including nine district officers and a report, with recommendations, will be tabled at the State Assembly.

“The committee will review the testimony of all the witnesses and we hope to table our report at the next sitting of the House in April.”