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Auditor General’s report 2000 for Negeri Sembilan pointed a reduction of RM76.55 millions in assets without any explanation whatsoever   Press Conference Statement by Loke Siew Fook (Seremban, Friday): The Auditor General’s report for Negeri Sembilan for the year 2000 was made available for Members of Parliament last week. I was given a copy of the report by former DAP Negeri Sembilan Chairman who is also the MP for Cheras, YB Tan Kok Wai.   After studying the report in details, I found a few very worrying and questionable items, which must be brought to the public attention of the Negeri Sembilan taxpayers.   Firstly, the report showed that the balance of assets of the state government has been reduced by RM76.55 million over a period of one year! The report for this item reads as below;  “Bahagian 1, nota 3.1 Kedudukan Kewangan Kerajaan Negeri:  Baki aset telah susut dengan RM76.55 juta iaitu daripada RM323.56 juta pada tahun 1999 menjadi RM247.01 juta pada tahun 2000. Pengurangan baki aset ini sebahagian besarnya adalah disebabkan wang dalam bank berjumlah RM60.28 juta telah dikeluarkan dan pelaburan dalam simpanan tetap berjumlah RM14.75 juta dicairkan.” The reduction of RM76.55 millions in assets represents a drop 23.65% in the value of assets hold by the state government. The sudden drop of such a huge amount in assets was not given any clarification and explanation in the report as to where the monies has gone? The itemized assets in the state’s coffer can be seen in the table below:    Negeri Sembilan State Government Balance Sheet as of 31 December 2000  Assets 1999 2000 Changes RM RM RM RM % CASH   In hand In bank On the way       26,019.70 87,378,315.04 1,749,464.81 89,153,799.55     19,238.50 27,096,123.20 185,333.20 27,300,694.90 -69%   -26% -69% -89% INVESTMENT   234,408,131.67     219,711,375.13 -6.4% TOTAL   323,561,931.22   247,012,070.03 -23.7%   The most questionable item from the above information is the ‘Cash in bank”. The balance of cash in bank has dropped from RM87.37 million in 1999 to RM27.09 million in 2000. That represents a drop of 69% or in actual sum RM60.28 millions! There was no explanation whatsoever in the Auditor General’s report as to what the RM60 millions has spent on?  I thought I found an answer from the part of “Pinjaman” or loan in the report, which said that, “Pada tahun 2000 Kerajaan Negeri menggunakan wang sendiri untuk perbelanjaan pembangunan berjumlah RM45.32 juta kerana pinjaman bagi projek berkenaan belum diterima daripada Kerajaan Persekutuan”   Assuming that the RM45.32 millions spent on development expenditure was taken out from the “Cash in bank” which subsequently reduced the assets, it still did not tally with the RM60.28 millions reduction in the balance in bank from 1999. There is still RM14.96 millions gone missing without any explanation of expenditure.   Leave that apart, there is still another item which is highly questionable. The investment of the state government was reduced by RM14.7 millions in year 2000. This was explained by, “Bah. 1; 3.6 Pelaburan – Pengurangan berjumlah RM14.70 juta adalah disebabkan Kerajaan Negeri telah mencairkan simpanan tetapnya bernilai RM14.75 juta bagi menampung perbelanjaan mengurus.”  It was explained that RM14.75 millions in fixed deposits was utilized for managing expenditure. This amount again did not make sense as the current account of 2000 recorded a deficit of only RM9.25 millions.   Kerajaan Negeri Sembilan Penyata Ringkas Hasil dan Perbelanjaan Bagi Tahun Berakhir 31 Disember 2000   BUTIRAN 2000 % Amaun Sebenar RM C1 HASIL Hasil Cukai Hasil Bukan Cukai Terimaan Bukan Hasil Terimaan dari wang Persekutuan   71,420,027.22 87,061,428.23 1,164,120.51 50,368,025.94     34.01 41.46 0.55 23.98   JUMLAH C1 210,013,601.90 100.00 C2 PERBELANJAAN Emolumen Perkhidmatan dan Bekalan Aset Pemberian dan Kenaan bayaran Perbelanjaan-perbelanjaan lain   56,539,679.72 41,370,878.38 6,133,846.85 114,846,328.13 370,897.95     25.79 18.87 2.8 52.38 0.17   JUMLAH C2 219,261,631.03 100.00   Lebihan/ (Kurangan) Bagi tahun (C1-C2) (9,248,029.13)     The state government collected a total sum of RM210 millions in revenue in 2000 while managing expenditure totaled RM219.26 millions over the same period. This resulted in a deficit of RM9.25 millions from the current account. How the state government justified the utilization of RM14.75 millions from fixed deposits for managing expenditure?   The Negeri Sembilan state government must immediately answer all my questions above to the taxpayers of Negeri Sembilan. The state government must realize that the state’s coffer are public monies belongs to the people of Negeri Sembilan and every cents must be accountable in a transparent manner.  I will write a letter to the Auditor-General Datuk Dr. Hadenan bin Abdul Jalil to seek an explanation from him why the Auditor General’s office did not question the state government although they have pointed out in their report that the state’s assets has been reduced by RM76.55 millions? I’ll raise all my questions above in my letter to him too.  I will also seek help from DAP Members of Parliament to raise all these questions in Parliament as Supplementary Questions during the debate of the Budget 2004. This is due to the fact that Negeri Sembilan Barisan Nasional State Assemblymen cannot be expected to raise all these questions in the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly during the coming Budget session as the NS State Assembly’s sittings has the reputation of being ended in less than 2 hours!  This are all the reasons why that Negeri Sembilan is in dire needs of a strong opposition in State Legislative Assembly to provide check and balance and to break the total domination of the Barisan Nasional in the Assembly. (12/9/2003) * Loke Siew Fook, DAP Negeri Sembilan Secretary