PRIME Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has cautioned Perikatan Nasional (PN) chief Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to not challenge his government on the issue of the RM600 bil that was allegedly misappropriated by the latter’s administration.
According to the prime minister, based on information obtained, there were some processes and procedures that were not followed by the PN government and that there were companies with interests or involving families.
“So don’t challenge me. I want to focus on governing the country, driving economic growth and providing welfare to the people. But once we are challenged, we will have to look into things,” Anwar said in his first press conference as Finance Minister.
Yesterday, the prime minister said he had been informed by Treasury officials that there was a serious violation of standard procedure in Putrajaya’s expenditure under Muhyiddin’s stewardship.
This included excessive procurements and high mark-ups.
“A large portion of the (RM530 billion) came from the Employees Provident Fund (special withdrawal schemes), which is the people’s own money, now he admits it,” he said.
“But there are tens of billions that were allocated where breaches of procedure were found.”
At a PN ceramah in Padang Serai last night, Muhyiddin told the prime minister to ask Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz whether there was any misappropriation of funds in the RM530 bil spent by the PN administration when it had governed the country.
Muhyiddin pointed out that Tengku Zafrul, who was the finance minister in his administration, is the international trade and industry minister in Anwar’s Cabinet.
“Just call Tengku Zafrul to come to your office in the morning, ask him whether it’s true Muhyiddin had taken the RM600 bil,” he said.
“They accuse me [of misappropriating] RM600 bil. But when I was the prime minister, we actually spent RM530 bil, not RM600 bil, to help the people. I am ready to be brought before the courts anytime.” – Dec 6, 2022
Main pic credit: Sadiq Asyraf / Prime Minister’s Office of Malaysia
