SHAH ALAM, Sept 10 – The Kuala Selangor District Officer told a state legislative investigation today that Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers abused their annual development fund allocations to campaign in last year's general elections.
"It's true the funds were used (for campaigning) but not all the pervious lawmakers were chosen to defend their seats." said Mohd Misri Idris, who was testifying before the special select committee for competency, accountability and transparency (Selcat) here today.
Mohd Misri told the public inquiry, which is probing how state allocations are managed and used by the previous and current administrations, that procedurally no applications for funds should be entertained after the state legislative assembly is dissolved.
But the state government watchdog disclosed that the District Office continued to approved and distribute funds in all five state constituencies in the Kuala Selangor district after the state assembly was dissolved on Feb 13 last year.
Mohd Misri could not provide an explanation to the Selcat panel because he was only appointed as the District Officer on April 9, after the general election, while his predecessor had resigned. He had previously served as the Assistant District Officer in Ulu Langat.
"Normally we can process between 20 and 30 applications for funds a day." he said, adding that the funds are supposed to be used throughout the year. However there would be a surge of applications for donations, small projects and claims just before elections.
"We will be called to make preparations and will receive briefings, so we will know the general elections are close," said Mohd Misri. He said during this period state lawmakers would want to spend as much of the allocations as fast as possible.
"Generally, we will process all applications as fast as possible, because the lawmakers will want us to expedite their applications," he said, adding that more staff would be roped in to help process all the applications.
Assistant District Officer Izahar Rasidi, who also testified today, admitted no checks were carried out to ensure the state funds were used for its intended purposes.
"We fully trusted the assemblyman or their representatives and we did not want to interfere in their affairs."
He added that they were merely civil servants and they would end up losing if they attempted to question lawmakers. "We are only trying to make a living."
However, Selcat panellist Saari Sungib said both the state lawmakers and civil servants had their role to play to ensure tax-payers money was used properly..
Izahar replied that they were in a difficult situation. "Who am I to question the lawmakers?" he asked.
He said that applications for funds were regarded as already approved by the lawmakers and the District Officer acted only to distribute the funds.
"We don't approve, we only process the application by preparing the vouchers and cheques."
Izahar was evasive when asked why his office approved 85 applications for funds amounting to almost RM450,00 on Feb 12 last year for the Ijok constituency, a day before the state assembly was dissolved.
"We are monitored by the state government. I may be wrong but maybe there were others who had received instructions (to expedite the applications) but I never received any," he said.
Financial clerk Norafzianti Jantra, who is tasked with preparing payment vouchers for the state allocations, said other staff from the the District Office had to be roped in to prepare the documents on Feb 12.
She described it as a "gotong royong" and added they were paid overtime. However Norafzianti admitted that although the vouchers were all dated Feb 12, they were signed after the state assembly was dissolved.
Two vouchers were also signed and approved on March 25, well after the new state government had been sworn- in.
The officers are scheduled to return on Monday to continue their testimony before the public inquiry.
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