Teng wants to plug fund leakages

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SHAH ALAM: The Selangor Speaker will propose a control mechanism to plug loopholes that can lead to the abuse of constituency funds.

“We want representatives of each constituency and district officers to be accountable, transparent and committed to the people,” said Speaker Teng Chang Khim.

“There should be certain rules to audit district officers and assemblymen after public funds have been used to fund political activities just before the last general election during Barisan Nasional rule,” Teng, who is also the Select Committee for Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) chairman, said yesterday.

He said he was satisfied with Sabak Bernam district officer Marzuki Hussin for being frank and direct with his answers.

“No audit was done during Barisan rule and now we want to set things right,” said Teng.

Marzuki had told the Selcat hearing that the allocations were applied for just before the 2008 general election, they were unusual amounts and the monies were released quickly to deal with calamities.

“One good thing he suggested was that assemblymen put forward a 12-month calendar of events and the allocations could be managed based on this,” said Teng.

Marzuki told the Selcat hearing that the use of funds meant for a whole year within one and a half months should not have happened unless Sabak Bernam had faced a ribut (storm).

Teng said he was glad that a civil servant had cooperated to give Selcat a clearer picture of how money is spent.

“It is going to be a challenge to draft a complete and pragmatic procedure,” said Teng.

He added that the committee would resume its hearings in mid-October.

Once it has completed questioning the district officers, several Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen would also be called in to check on funds used since the start of the year.