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Enact FoI Act to ensure Budget 2024 disbursement, urges Kula | Scoop
Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran has raised concerns about the recently announced Budget Monitoring Committee’s ability to effectively oversee the proper disbursement of budget allocations. – Screen grab pic, October 17, 2023
News

Enact FoI Act to ensure Budget 2024 disbursement, urges Kula

DAP lawmaker says appropriate mechanism required to ensure financial transparency

Main Author Image
Adam Ayzzat
Updated
5:57 PM MYT

 

KUALA LUMPUR – M. Kulasegaran (Ipoh Barat-PH) has called for the enactment of the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act to guarantee the disbursements from Budget 2024.

In response to the recently announced Budget Monitoring Committee in the Dewan Rakyat, the former human resource minister raised concerns about the committee’s ability to effectively oversee the proper disbursement of budget allocations.

He said this was because the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA) binds the free flow of information and protects the secrecy surrounding it.

“The committee cannot effectively monitor if allocations are properly distributed if there is no appropriate mechanism to ensure financial transparency, as well as federal and state government contracts,” he said when debating the 2024 supply bill today.

“It also includes how contracts are negotiated and the backgrounds of the awarded parties to ensure that the projects are not only given to the most competent party, but also ensure contract accountability through stringent criteria.”

The DAP lawmaker noted that a previous Perak state administration had cited the OSA to avoid disclosing a contract awarded to a firm for road and drainage repairs, stating that the concession agreement was a confidential document containing information that binds the parties.

Kulasegaran also questioned how the OSA could keep certain information concealed, when “government funds are the people’s money”.

“If (the secrecy) continues, it will become worse one day, just like 1Malaysia Development Bhd,” he said, reiterating the necessity for the FoI Act. 

Budget 2024 tabled last week allocated RM393.8 billion, equivalent to about 19.9% of the gross domestic product. 

Deputy Finance Minister I Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan said a Budget Monitoring Committee would be established to ensure that allocations under the 2024 supply bill would be properly disbursed for the people’s benefit.

The committee is set to be headed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and would include Ahmad, his fellow deputy finance minister Steven Sim, and Treasury Secretary-General Datuk Johan Mahmood Merican.

Currently, Selangor and Penang are the only two states that have implemented their own FoI laws. – October 17, 2023

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