Sabah best paymaster – CM

0

Datuk Seri Musa Aman

SABAH is known as the best paymaster among all the states in the country as it always repaid its debts to the Federal Government on time, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said.

Musa, who is also Finance Minister, said that not only did the state government pay its debts on time, sometimes it paid early too.

“Like other state governments, we too owe the federal government, which is the norm as we take loans  for development of basic infrastructure such as water supply and other projects. But Sabah is a ‘gentleman’, we will repay our debts and for the record, Sabah is known as the best paymaster among all the states in Malaysia.

“In other words we always pay on time or sometimes we pay early. To me, if we borrow, we pay back (and) where we feel that it should be given as a grant, we will request from the federal government as such and it is usually approved,” Musa said this when replying to Inanam assemblyman Dr Roland Chia at the State Assembly sitting.

He also said that other than the loans and grants, the state government also received allocation from the federal government in the form of facilitation fund and among the projects that received funding through this is the Sabah International Convention Centre (SICC).

“We requested for funding from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and he approved RM250 million for the SICC. This also goes for the Tanjung Aru Eco Development which is for the rakyat, the Prime Minister agreed to allocate RM500 million for the project,” he said, adding that SICC is wholly owned by Sabah Foundation while the Tanjung Aru Eco Development Sdn Bhd is a wholly-owned State Government company under the Chief Minister’s Department.

The private sector is not involved.

He said that the Prime Minister was always ready to assist Sabah and allocation had been given for many other development projects in the state like the construction of flyovers (RM65 million).

“I have said before that whatever we need, I will not hesitate to meet with the Prime Minister who is also Finance Minister to ask for assistance or loan or grant and he usually approves the request,” Musa pointed out.

“I have not changed my statement since then, selalunya apa yg saya minta untuk negeri dan rakyat diberi kelulusan by Prime Minister.

“There are other also federal funds given through the state agencies like SLDB which recently received funding from the federal government for smallholders.

“So if we calculate all that, the amount of funding, direct and indirect, we get from the federal government is huge,” he said.

Replying to a question by Bingkor assemblyman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan on the RM2.6 billion debt the state government had with the federal government and whether it could be offset by what the federal government owed Sabah in terms of revenue as stated in the federal constitution, Musa said that it was not necessary to do so.

“We are the best paymaster. You do not have to worry about the debt and because the state has good relationship with its federal counterpart, it is easy for us to discuss matter. What is important is that we will ask for what is good for Sabah and its people.

“We never hesitate to ask … why not. I ask and it is usually granted,” he said.

Earlier Assistant Finance Minister Datuk Ramlee Marahaban when replying to Roland’s question on the total grant and direct funding the state government received from its federal counterpart, said that from 2014 to 2016, Sabah received RM1.012 billion, RM1.058 billion and RM1,047 billion respectively.

In the three years, Sabah received direct funding of RM376.2 million, RM423.6 million and RM533.9 million respectively.