GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today clarified that it was the Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP) that had failed to channel the drainage contribution to the state government.
He said it was not that the state government did not channel the contribution to the state Irrigation and Drainage Department (DID).
“The question that was aimed at me by a Berita Harian reporter yesterday was why the state government did not channel some RM20 million of drainage contribution to state DID as allegedly revealed in the Auditor General’s Report 2016 Series 1.
“I had answered that I do not know about the AG’s reprimand on the contribution.
“The truth is this question had been answered by state Local Government, Traffic and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow previously and it was not that the state government did not channel the contribution to the state DID but it is actually the MPSP that had failed to channel the contribution to the state government,” he told reporters at a press conference after the 2017 Southeast Asian Collaborative Meeting On Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage here today.
The AG’s Report, which was tabled last July, had said that as of June last year, the MPSP was still withholding RM22.09 million drainage contribution from state DID.
Lim who was asked to comment on the matter yesterday in light of Friday's massive flash floods, had said he did not really know about the reprimand.
"I need to refer to the DID, but all the (flood mitigation) projects which we approved are carried out by the department. DID is a Federal agency but we work together with it.
"But I need to check (on the report). I am not in the know about the issue raised, but as I said earlier, we will ask the Federal Government to expedite all DID projects in the state," he told newsmen.
On Saturday, BH had reported that Public Accounts Committee member Datuk Muhammad Farid Saad had questioned the state authority's failure to hand over the contribution, which was supposed to have been used for water dispersal project.
He had also said that the Auditor General's report proved that the Penang government was not serious in addressing the constant flash floods, but was more interested to pin the blame on the Federal Government.
Last month, Chow had instructed the MPSP to hand over funds collected from developers to the DID promptly, to facilitate the smooth implementation of flood mitigation and drainage projects.
He had said that the state government, DID and MPSP accepted the reprimand from the Auditor General on the weaknesses in handing over of the funds, and would rectify the matter.
He had also said that all money collected was strictly used to implement flood mitigation and drainage projects and had not been misappropriated.
Lim said Chow had ordered MPSP to channel the contribution to the state government.
“What is important however is that the contribution is used by MPSP to carry out flood mitigation projects and not for any other purpose. But we will follow the rules, and Chow has ordered MPSP to channel the contribution to the state government,” he said.
Chow, who was present at the press conference, said the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) has been following the mechanism set and the money collected was channelled to drainage contribution fund every three months.
However, he said, the MPSP has had its own mechanism.
“The MPSP keeps the money collected but only uses it for projects that are approved by the flood mitigation committee.
“Their (MPSP) only weakness is they do not hand over the money to the drainage contribution fund but use it to carry out flood mitigation projects."
Meanwhile, Lim said he was not satisfied with the question yesterday and labelled it as a “question of lies and fraud”.
“This question - why the state government did not channel the RM20 million to DID - is a lie, when in fact we are supposed to get RM20 million from MPSP.
“Not that we did not channel the funds but that we did not receive it. This question was twisted,” he said.
Lim added the AG’s report does not mention that the state government did not channel the money to DID but that MSPS did not channel the money to the state government.