BarisaRM 2 million constituency development fund enjoyed by BN ADUNs in Selangor must be accountable and transparent as the money comes from the people

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Media Statement 
by Lau Weng San
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(Petaling Jaya, Monday) : BN ADUN for Ijok K. Parthiban was interviewed by Malaysiakini.com as saying that each BN ADUN in Selangor is allocated RM2 million a year as constituency development funds. 

Parthiban was quoted as saying that:  

“I give priority to youths since I am a young man myself. I have organised many sporting events such as futsal and badminton to keep them occupied. I built badminton courts for them,” he said. 

These are funded through an annual development fund of RM2 million allocated to each state assemblyperson in Selangor, he explained. 

DAP Selangor is shocked that:

• If each BN ADUN enjoys RM2 million annually as constituency development funds, what it means is that Selangor State Government will have to fork out RM108 million in total just for constituency development funds alone.

• RM108 million should be regarded as a huge amount for a state government and it is equally astonishing that not a single BN ADUN has ever been accountable to the allocation by announcing how the allocation was spent for the past few years.

And if we review the performance of our ADUNs in Selangor, such huge allocation for them to be disposed as “constituency development funds” is totally not matching with their performances at all. 

Moreover, the State Assembly Hall has lost its function to be an effective platform for ADUNs to raise matters concerning the people of Selangor. For example, the Selangor State Assembly Hall was only convened for about five days last year and the year before, even the last seating was only convened for one day and only 5 oral questions were answered. 

This shows that the Selangor State Assembly Hall has lost its shine as an effective platform for the people to voice their opinions on matters concerning Selangor through their elected State Assemblymen/women, whom more than 90 percent of them are from BN. If BN ADUNs fail to play an effective role in the Selangor State Assembly Hall to speak up for the people, which is their most basic and fundamental responsibility to be discharged as elected ADUN, then what excuse they could have to enjoy hundreds of million ringgit as “constituency development fund”. 

For the information of the public, each BN MPs enjoy up to RM2 million as constituency development funds, which is increased from RM500,000 to RM2 million. 

The State Government also spent more than RM30 million to renovate the current Selangor State Assembly Hall which is completely a white elephant as it is never used for more than five days a year. 

We wish to stress that such astronomical amount of allocation is not personal property of BN but the money form taxpayers. It will be a laughing stock if the state government spent tens of million of ringgit to renovate the Selangor State Assembly Hall building but has never used it for more than five days, it will even be a bigger laughing stock if hundred of millions of constituency development funds are not made accountable and transparent to the rakyat. 

Is this they type of “developed state” that the MB wishes to achieve? Is this the benefit of having zero opposition in Selangor, which has been lauded by the MB since years ago? Are all 54 BN ADUNs dare to announce where has this RM2 million gone to?        

(27/8/2007)