SHAH ALAM, 29 Mar: The presentation of the Supplementary Supply Bill by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government to apply for additional expenses of RM2.392 billion (RM2,392,077,572) for 2013 is seen and not being transparent and reflects failure of proper management.
The Executive Director of the People’s Institute, Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin, said that this can be seen when the Supplementary Supply Bill was presented without providing the details of the expenses.
“When it was presented, they said for what ministry or department it is for, but there was no details on what it was spent on.
“This is in contract with the Selangor Government which is transparent in presenting the Supplementary Supply Bill with complete and comprehensive information on what it is being spent on.
“The move by the Selangor Government to table a balanced budget makes the additional budget make little impact if it is done,” said Azrul when contacted by Selangor Kini yesterday.
He said that the Selangor Government’s supplementary budget was also done after a finding a need and an increase in income received compared to the projections made earlier.
“One indicator that shows that there is an increase in the Selangor Government revenues can be seen in the increase of state reserves, but this is not the only indicator,” he said.
Azrul said that supplementary supply requested by the Federal Government is becoming a growing concern of the people when the annual budget presented prior to this is a deficit budget for the past 14 consecutive years.
“Every year, the Federal Government appeals for supplementary supplies up to two times. Not a small amount but billions of ringgit and this is worrying and could derail the previous budget deficit target when there is an increase in expenses unless there is an increase in revenue compared to projections made earlier,” he said.