To make sure there is no “hanky panky” when channeling aid funds for flood victims, a DAP leader has called for strict audits for the RM 800 million that the government claims it spent on flood victims in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak.
DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said based on his own experience of the devastation in the flood hit areas, he did not get the sense that RM 500 million has been spent in Kelantan, the state that was worst hit by the floods.
“I am shocked that the Deputy Finance Minister, Ahmad Maslan announced yesterday that the government had so far spent about RM800 million through the National Security Council to help victims in states affected by floods in the provision of food supply, logistics and cleaning houses of victims,” he said.
He opined that since Kelantan was the worst flood stricken state, compared to Terengganu, Pahang, and Perak which were also affected, a bulk of the said amount should have been directed there.
“Let Maslan reveal, out of this RM800 million, how much had been spent in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak – so far the worst flood-hit states.”
“There should be strict audit of the so-called RM800 million already spent to help flood victims, and the other expenditures still to be made, to ensure that there is no hanky-panky whatsoever.”
Lim said that this was necessary to ensure that no money was spared from the victims, and not a sen be wasted.
“All government expenditures spent in the floods catastrophe must directly benefit the flood victims and not the “floods” barons, entrepreneurs or cronies,” he said.
He described Ground Zero zones of Manek Urai and Gua Musang as though “it had been hit by a tsunami or the aftermath of a war zone”.
In Kampung Manjor, he said, only 15 out of the 220 houses had survived the floods – “a living testimony of the power and might of Mother Nature when its fury at the despoliation of the environment” as he put it.
He also said that he was not aware that any Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister had visited any of the Ground Zero zones in Kuala Krai.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, upon his return from Hawaii to Malaysia, had asked all Cabinet Ministers to return to Kelantan in the wake of the floods that displaced over 230,000 people.
During his visit to the flood torn areas, he had contracted E. Coli, and was forced to ‘recuperate’ at home.
In Lim’s statement today, he wished Najib a speedy recovery to be able to chair the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
He hopes that the Ministers can take collective decisions on the five-point action plan which he said was made know to the Najib via email.
Lim had emailed a five point action plan personally to Najib outlining action plans for the flood hit states.
Amongst the proposals, included the declaration of a state of emergency, the formation of a BN-PR Joint Action Council, convening a special parliamentary sitting this month (on the floods and to defer GST), doubling the RM 500million government allocation to RM 1 billion, and establishing a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the weaknesses of flood disaster preparations.
“I hope the Cabinet tomorrow will have good news for the million flood victims, especially those in the worst-hit areas like Gua Musang and Kuala Krai in Kelantan and Temerloh and Mentakab in Pahang,” he added.
–The Rocket
