KUCHING: Sarawak DAP started the new year by launching its latest leaf let, with a headline that read ‘The Budget Black Hole: Where Has Our RM11,000,000,000 Gone?’.
The A4-size leaf let which is printed in three languages – Malay, English and Chinese – would be distributed throughout the state.
Its secretary and Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen yesterday said the aim of publishing the leaf let was to push the authorities to disclose the identities of the so-called approved agencies that had been receiving the RM11 billion from the state government under a trust fund since 2006.
Accompanied by eight comrades including three state assemblymen at a news conference here, Chong claimed that since 2006, the state government had allocated almost 50 per cent of the annual state development expenditure to these approved agencies under the trust fund.
He charged that DAP elected representatives had raised the issue numerous times during the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sittings to demand the state government to disclose their identities.
“But, we were given a sweeping statement where we were told the approved agencies were referred to as corporations, companies or organisations which had been approved to promote the economic, social or educational development in the state.
“Why is the state government refusing to disclose the identities of those who have received the fund?” questioned Chong, who is also the Kota Sentosa assemblyman.
He stressed that the action of the state government had gone against the basic principle of parliamentary democracy where every single cent spent must be accounted for.
He said, among others, the money could be used to upgrade the Pan Borneo Trunk Road to four-lane highway, provide 10,000 full overseas medical scholarships, build 100,000 units of medium-cost houses or be given in the form of RM3,700 cash to every Sarawakian.