Pua wants probe into BN’s abuse of federal allocations

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 20 — The DAP’s Tony Pua claimed today that Barisan Nasional (BN) and Umno divisions had abused federal allocations in Pakatan Rakyat-held constituencies.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP wants the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to probe the alleged abuse which was highlighted in the latest Auditor-General's report which was released to Parliament yesterday.

As an example, he said the report showed that in Taman Danau Desa, an area under the Seputeh parliamentary constituency of the DAP's Teresa Kok, three projects involving the construction of an indoor stadium, community hall and a recreational park given to Umno-affiliated contractors in 2007 were not carried out.


Each of the contracts was worth more than RM130,000.

Another example he cited was the construction of a RM98,000 community hall in Bandar Tun Razak, the parliamentary constituency of Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

"The hall was found to be under-utilised and the excuse given by the Bandar Tun Razak Umno chief was that the hall had been fully used for the Umno divisional polls," said Pua, adding that the revelations in the audit report make a strong case against Umno and BN.

"These people have no position whatsoever in the government (yet government allocations are abused by them)."

The report also showed other discrepancies like delays in meeting deadlines and projects costing more than allocations, he said.

"We want the MACC to investigate the audit report which has provided strong evidence against them and not waste time on their fishing expedition on opposition leaders," he said in reference to the MACC probe on PR lawmakers for alleged abuse of allocations for their respective state and parliamentary constituencies.

For 2007, the government had provided RM2 million for each parliamentary constituency. The amount fell to RM1.5 million the next year and RM1 million for this year.

Pua said the 2008 Audit Report had revealed that the allocations, given by the Finance Ministry through the Prime Minister's Department, had been channelled directly to BN divisions.

"Out of the 96 visits by the Audit Department, the Auditor-General found there were problems with at least 10 projects," Pua told a press conference in the Parliament lobby.

"Among the most startling revelation by the A-G report is the abuse of power and allocation misappropriation involving projects managed by local Umno divisions," said Pua.