Where has all the money gone to?

Datuk Wong Yit Ming

"Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Peter Pang En Yin was so touched by the poor situation of Tshung Tsin school in Tenom that he made a personal donation of RM10,000 to the school. This was reported in last week's newspaper. Such is the fine example shown by our top Chinese leader in the BN government.

After the serious floods in Sandakan in February, Datuk Pang also used his own personal money of RM3,000 to help clean up some of the mess. Has he already used up all the assemblyman funds for this year? It is only the beginning of the year, where is the RM1 million for each assemblyman that was announced by the Chief Minister?

One wonders, where has all the government money gone to? Is the government bankrupt that the Public Works Department (JKR), the Municipal Council of Sandakan, the rural development ministry and other agencies have no money even to clean up the mud and dirt after a flood? Luckily for the Sandakan people and the Tenom Tshung Tsin School, we have a rich deputy chief minister like Datuk Peter Pang. If not, then where can they get help?

In any case, if we consider all the people of Sabah, can we rely only on personal funds of the minister? Datuk Peter Pang by convention holding the post of Chinese DCM represents the Chinese community in the BN government. There are two other ethnic Chinese ministers in the BN Cabinet. They are both not poor. But do we expect that Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah and Datuk Dr. Yee Moh Chai to make personal donations to schools and for public project?

Or is it because the Chinese ministers have no power? What are the budgets in their respective ministries? According to the 2011 Sabah Annual Budget approved by the Legislative Assembly last November, the total expenditure for this year is RM3,068.66 million. The projected revenue is RM2,747.94 million. This means deficit budget of RM320.72 million.

How much is allocated to the three ministries headed by Datuk Peter Pang En Yin, Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah and Datuk Dr. Yee Moh Chai? The full list is shown here : 
 

Ministry	Allocation (RM in Millions)	%
Ministry Of Finance	1,032.59	33.65
Ministry Of Infrastructure Development	660.93	21.54
Chief Minister's Department	422.74	13.78
Ministry Of Agriculture and Food Industry	273.58	8.92
Ministry Of Community Devt and Consumer Affairs	125.98	4.11
Ministry Of Tourism, Culture and Environment	105.37	3.43
Ministry Of Local Government and Housing	88.70	2.89
Ministry Of Resource Development and IT	83.61	2.72
Ministry Of Rural Development	62.68	2.04
Ministry Of Youth and Sport	54.41	1.77
Ministry Of Industrial Development	9.52	0.31
Expenditure Not Included in Ministerial Portfolios	22.24	0.72
Charge Expenditure	126.31	4.12
Total	3,068.66	100

The combined total of the three ministries is only RM147.54 million. This is only 4.81% of the total budget. This is the same pattern in previous budgets. The budget also allocated RM210.81 million for youth activities and IT training. Since the allocations for both the youth and IT ministries are less than the RM 210.81 million given to youth training, it means that much of the youth and IT activities are undertaken by other agencies not under the youth and IT ministries. This is another reason why these two ministries have so little money. The least budget is given to Datuk Raymond Tan's ministry with only 9.52 million which is less than that of the Kota Kinabalu City Hall, the Museum and government companies like Ko-Nelayan, Rubber Fund Board and Sabah Railways".

Datuk Wong Yit Ming is Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Treasurer-General