The RM300 million budget cut on the Health Ministry this year is bound to get people thinking that something bad is happening to the country, veteran journalist Datuk A. Kadir Jasin said.
The former New Straits Times group editor-in-chief wrote on his blog yesterday that Health Minister Datuk Seri S. Subramaniam had assured the cut would not affect patient care as his ministry would be reducing spending on lavish functions and participation in conferences.
However, Kadir said he was unaware that ministries, government departments and agencies were given allocation for “lavish functions”.
"Lavish functions? I did not know that government ministries, departments and agencies are given allocations for lavish functions.
"But I know there was a groundbreaking ceremony attended by (Prime Minister) Datuk Seri Najib Razak and other top leaders that cost RM1 million or more.”
He added that the Health Ministry budget cut was consistent with information that all ministries, departments and government agencies had to take a cut.
Short of funds or NO MORE FUNDS?
Kadir also said he was informed by a high ranking officer to a senior minister that these government units had their 2015 budgets cut by a total of RM2 billion, in order to pay for the major floods that hit the county late last year.
He posed however that given the budget cut, one cannot run away from asking the question “is the Treasury short of funds or worst still, out of funds?”.
"What has happened to the contingency allocation or is it no longer a practise to have such an allocation under Najib as prime minister and finance minister?
"Or has the money been used up for other purposes such as giving emergency loan of RM950 million to 1MDB in March," he asked on his blog, in reference to the controversial debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
Still borrowing despite record debt
Kadir added that if the Treasury was short of funds and had to be in debt by selling bonds and sukuk, why was there still the practise of lavish spending and questionable distributions.
He also revealed information from Umno sources that another solidarity event was being planned with the prime minister on May 11, where Najib is expected to hand out a special allocation of RM500,000 each to about 60 Umno division heads who were not elected representatives.
He said that if this was true, there was a need to ensure whether this allocation was from the government, party or sponsored by other groups.
"If it is from the Treasury, we need to ensure whether all the guidelines are met on government funds being channelled through Umno division heads.
He also said that he was informed by the same sources that they have scrutinised 1MDB's accounts and are taking action to ensure that the controversy involving the Finance Ministry-owned company did not affect the country's economy and Umno's credibility.
Kadir said that the sources also said that the questions by Cheras Umno chief Datuk Seri Syed Ali Alhabshee in his blog on why the authorities were slow in questioning businessman Jho Low, was part of their move to save Umno and the government.
He added that he understood these messages from his Umno sources as asserting that the continuity of Umno was more important than the survival of any individual.- TMI
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