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Message
Yong Teck Lee:
"This is my promise to you, that our struggle continues and I will
always be by your side"...."Trust and integrity of the leaders are
fundamental to the future of a country or a government or, in our case,
SAPP as a serious political party of the future"
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2009 Feb 1 - More shocking questions over the missing billion ringgit "special grant"<
SAPP: More shocking questions over the missing billion ringgit
"special grant"
Kota Kinabalu (Feb 1, 2009):
Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president, Datuk Yong Teck Lee, said that
the disclosure by the State Secretary Office on January 31 that the RM 1
billion special grant for Sabah announced by the Prime Minister last May
was placed under the Prime Minister’s Department is a shocking revelation
that disgraces the State BN government and exposes the BN Federal
government’s insincerity.
"There are reasons to believe that the State Secretary’s office was made
to prepare this belated disclosure because none of the BN State Ministers
or the Chief Minister himself wanted to be responsible to explain the
missing RM 1 billion." added Yong.
"Everybody in government knows that any funds placed under the
Implementation Co-ordination Unit (ICU) of the PM Department remains in
federal hands. Projects under this ICU are still controlled by federal
authorities. The ICU was the boss of the disbanded JPPS (Federal
Department of Development Sabah). Since the RM 1 billion is placed under
the ICU, then it means that there is no special grant to Sabah. It only
means that allocations may be made from the existing 9th Malaysia Plan and
ordinary budget. As SAPP has pointed out several times before, there was
no mention of any RM 1 billion special grant to Sabah in the 2009 federal
annual budget or 2008 supplementary budgets or even the extra budget under
the economic stimulus plan.
"It is also puzzling that if RM 200 million has been channeled to the
SDO by the Prime Minister’s Department then how is it that Minister in the
Prime Minister’s Department (Tan Sri Bernard Dompok) was not aware of such
special grants?
"And as disclosed by the State Secretary, RM2.1 million has been
allocated to Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen, then how is it
that the Sabah Deputy Chief Minister/Minister of Rural Development (Datuk
Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan) seems to be in the dark? Is it not that same
Ministry of Rural Development that is responsible for Assemblymen funds?",
Yong asked.
"The impression earlier given to the Sabah people for the withholding of
RM 1 billion was that the Federal Government wanted the Sabah Development
Corridor to be formed before such special grants are disbursed to Sabah.
Sections 7(b), 14 (b) and 15 (a) of the Sabah Development and Investment
Authority Enactment 2009 (SEDIA) expressly provided for the receipt of
grants and funds from the federal government. This is the only function
that significantly differentiates SEDIA from other existing statutory
bodies. But two weeks after the SEDIA enactment was passed by the State
Legislative Assembly, the government announced that RM 200 million of the
RM 1 billion has been channeled to the Sabah Development Office instead of
SEDIA. If this is the case, then the same funds could have been channeled
to the federal Education Department, Health Services Department, federal
Public Works Department (JKR) and so on. What is the role of SEDIA then?"
questioned Yong. |
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