In his 2008 Budget speech in Parliament last Friday, Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced an appropriation of RM176.9 billion comprising RM128.8 billion for Operating Expenditure and RM48.1 billion for Development Expenditure.
This was backed up by the Ministry of Finance Statement of the 2008 Federal Expenditure Estimates tabled in the House during the budget presentation (Command Paper 12 of 2007).
However, in another Ministry of Finance document, the Economic Report 2007/2008, (Command paper 2 of 2007),which was also tabled in Parliament at the same time, a completely different set of figures was provided.
Chapter 4 of the Economic Report 2007/2008 on “Public Sector Finance”, in its section on “Outlook for 2008”, states: “This Budget will allocate a total of RM168,799 million, an increase of 2.5% over 2007. Of this, RM128,799 million is for operating expenditure and the balance of RM40,000 million for development expenditure”. (p 96)
These different set of figures were backed up the Table 4.1 on “Federal Government Financial Position 2006-2008” (p 77).
How could there be such a huge difference of RM8.1 billion for the 2008 Development Estimates between Abdullah’s budget presentation and Finance Ministry Statement on the one hand and the Finance Ministry’s Economic Report 2007/2008, all presented to Parliament on the same day last Friday?
There can be no justification for such a huge difference in the two sets of figures as the Finance Ministry’s Economic Report 2007/2008 was signed off by Abdullah as Finance Minister in a preface dated 7th September 2007 (the very same day as the budget presentation).
A difference of RM8.1 billion would have sent the whole budgetary estimates awry, with the estimated budget deficit for 2008 estimated at 3.1 per cent of the GDP shooting up to 4.6 per cent — a most unfortunate reflection on the professionalism and competence of government budgetary expertise which could only undermine public confidence in the Abdullah administration.
I raised this issue in Parliament this evening (the third day of the 2008 Budget debate before adjourning for 39 days until October 22) when the Barisan Nasional MP for Muar, Razali Ibrahim was speaking but no BN MP seemed to be the least bit concerned about the “RM8.1 billion scandal of the 2008 Budget”.
On the floor of Parliament, I had called on Abdullah to give instant explanation for the RM8.1 billion difference of 2008 development estimates, as this matter cannot wait for two months until the Ministerial winding-up in the second week of November, without doing untold harm to national and international confidence in the financial professionalism, capability and responsibility of the government.
Can one………..anything also can in “Malaysia Boleh”
What is the PM’s and Govt’s KPI? Snooze PM will say “I m the decider so no need lah”. Yes anything boleh in bodohland.
It is the “Balancing Item” to make sure everything is “accounted” for.
Too many economists and accountants who go ” on the one hand….and on the other hand…” and Hey! Presto! its gone into thin air, the black hole of unaccountability.
Better than the RM 232 ringgits for a set of RM 32 screwdrivers. Better than David Copperfield. Better than Goldfinger.
If the rotting process continues and goes unchecked,soon we will be counting days before we join the league of nations like Malawi.Swaziland,Indonesia,Phillipines or Myamar.
I bet he does not even know the number of zeros in a billion, so the Finance Minister who failed introductory statistics in UM can’t really be blamed for the RM8.1 billion difference.
Can you imagine a PM preparing a budget and in between he is attending to Jane & the herb garden, have to find out how the goats in Penang are doing and dreaming of the last and coming holiday in Perth.
Malaysia you are in the hand of a retiree on holiday!
Something is seriously wrong with our parliamentary system. There are no checks and balances. If Rice, Rumsfelt, General Betray Us and Ambassador Crocker can appear and answerable to Congress, why cant LLS, CKC, SVellu, Najib and Kerismuddin and UMNO/BN gang be called to parliamentary committee equivalent to US congress to answer for PKFZ, defence purchase and contracts, sports purchase, etcetc. These fraudsters are getting away with murder.
Cooked-up country’s Cooked-up Finance Minister cum Cooked-up PM presented Cooked-up budget to Cooked-up Parliament and Cooked-up Rakyat
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2007/09/cooked-up-2008-budget-figures-that.html
Abdullah, when tabling the budget, announced an allocation of RM48.12 billion for development whereas the amount stated in the Economic Report 2007/2008 issued by the Finance Ministry was only RM40 billion. “This shows a difference of RM8.12 billion and the government should explain why this occurred,”
Is this the same problem with the Bumi equity percentages that was hotly contested by Dr Lim Teck Chee that cost him to sacrifice his job?
This is not surprising anymore. They don’t really know the numbers but there is one thing they know very well – spend, spend and spend. Spend what they don’t have. That’s their mentality. No worries, there will be another day in paradise.
Can you imagine that the Treasury recommend a lower number than the RM8 billion in salary increase for civil servants and at the last minute, Badawi upped it to the RM 8 billon ?
Please forgive him… He failed his Form 5 maths … But with NEP…..Alhamdulillah he still qualified to be a PM
My little sister who is very blur about partisan politics and things in the country asked me whether AAB read the budget text before 4pm on Friday.
Other friends told me independently they have doubts that AAB actually read the budget text before 4pm on Friday.
Speaks volume of AAB. And might explain the RM 8.1 billion difference.
Lets help him out by stating 8.1 billion with all its ‘0’.
RM8.1 billion is RM8,100,000,000. That is a lot of RAKYAT’s money.
check this out
http://www.justaskmeanything.com/malaysia
a site where u can create questions based on the political figures you like or don’t like and you can vote for them. Created to let malayians vote for what they think is right.
cheers
The RM8.1 billion difference in the Budget is reserved for the SIL and cronies who occupied in the fourth floor without jobs.
YB,
There’s a typo error (I think) relating to Chapter 4 of the Economic Report 2007/2008 which denominates the expenditure in millions instead of billions?
Anyway last minute, the resolve to reduce the budget deficit might have weakened. Election coming, got to spend lah : we have development expenditure in Southern Corridor (Iskandar) to benefit Johor (bastion of UMNO) and then Pak Lah’s Northern Corridor project with Penang Global City Centre within – then we cut on corporate tax in order to pave way for eventual introduction of GST blah blah not to mention the RM 4.6 billion hole in PKFZ!
They don’t bother lah about the extra RM8.1 billion budget deficit for the 2008 Development Estimates.
BN politicians approach the problem in ways they calculate their constituencies will tolerate and support. They’d say the government spends more, means more positive shock to the economy and stimulates growth/multiplier effect.
There is no causal relationship between budget deficit and current account.
Notwithstanding external shocks like unraveling of subprime, we are estimating a current account surplus to buffer.
According to Business Times Sept 7th , the same Economic Report 2007/2008 reported MALAYSIA was set to register robust gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2008, with real GDP next year seen expanding at between 6.0-6.5 per cent, after growing at an estimated 6%. According to Kenangan Research’s take on Budget 2008 (reported in Edge Daily Sept 13), “against a projected surplus of RM90 billion in 2007 or 14.8% of GDP, the forecast surplus for 2008 is RM88.7 billion or 13.4% of GDP. The slightly lower surplus could be due to the impact of stronger ringgit and the strengthening in domestic demand which is expected to raise the import bill… Essentially, the excess savings would be able to provide the needed funding to the public sector via the domestic financial system without crowding-out the private sector. Along with the projected growth in excess of 6% next year, the level of federal government deficit could still be sustained at around RM20 billion-RM25 billion for 2008â€Â. So to BN what’s the big deal if it spends RM8.1 billion more than what it receives? That is if one believes in our government’s statistics! :)
Even Japan incurs a budget deficit of over 7% of GDP and yet a current account surplus of over 3% of GDP.
Apparently the Economic Report and the Budget Speech are prepared by two different teams, one of which, I think, is known as the “Oxford” team.
The answer will be very simple. It is just a presentation error and they have rectify before the Budget 2008 annoucement. This is Malaysian style or Barisan style of goverment and I suppose they cannot do anything without an error and at the end of the day only GOD knows what is it about. At the end of the day they will ask for forgiveness for wrongful presentation which will be easily forgiven and not big issue as the are the saviour of Malaysians and we are all indebted to them. They have sacrifice so much to make sure our Tax Payers’s hard earned money is being properly channeled into their creative personal account or their cronies account. THANK YOU SO MUCH BARISAN GOVERMENT.
Mistake happens all the time. What is the big deal?
Typical modus operandi of the BN government – differences, whether typo or otherwise, seems to appear in all the ‘right’ places. Confusion, chaos and vagueness is the order of the day. That way, nobody will be able to finger anybody.
Read this. What can be more sickening?
http://malaysia-today.net/blog2006/corridors.php?itemid=8117
RM6.75 billion scandal. And to think that some favoured cronies dipped their hands into the treasury and all the hard-earned money of millions of Malaysian taxpayers were whisked off.
Is there any equivalent of a ‘caveat emptor’ for taxpayers?
Why Abdullah is holding so many Minister posts? Sometimes I just don’t know which ministry he is representing.
I think UMNO doesn’t have enough qualified people so much so that he has to appoint a terrorist-styled guy to the post of Education Minister. Wow! Malaysia will be full of terrorists in 10 years time.
The breakdown of the RM 8.1 billion is:
Port Klang Fiasco 4.6 billion
Additional cost of Naval ships 1.4 billion
Yet to be identified scandals 2.1 billion
———-
Total cost of fiascos 8.1 billion
Why Abdullah is holding so many Minister posts?
—————————————————————-
So that he can get 3 salaries in one shot. And when he retires (sooner rather than later) he will be enjoying 3 pensions totaling RM30,000 per month (RM1,000 a day), while a lot of poor Malaysian sogs are sogging away morning till night at RM290 a month (RM9.67 a day) So you see the sog is not a dumbo as some people claim him to be
P/S:— SOG is a three-letter acronym that in no way refer to the meanings in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOG
It simply means ‘son of a goat’
If anyone look carefully the warning of AG reported in
http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=19289
“Further, it is perplexing that 10 companies held by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, the shares of which have a book value of RM21.27 billion, were not stated in Treasury records”
PM-FM has at least “pot-lids” of 21.27 billion to be used. So, WHY SHOULD IT BE SURPRISED BY 8.1 BILLION??
And with more money raising machines under “NEW” Act such as Water Services Industry Act queried in
http://penangwatch.net/node/905#comment-2118
and other possibility of raising money via those sub-sub- subsidiaries, the “Blow-up” of projects or economic to “bubble“ economic growth shouldn’t be surprised:
http://penangwatch.net/node/1344#comment-8839
If ACTS & Amendments can be so freely “passed”, the PARLIAMENT has “created” some “CORPORATIONS” under the umbrella of the Government but with “private” flexibility in money/account matters and not even to be monitored by AG and so much “Concessionaires” to siphon the “Budget” with inflations, the meaning of Annual Budget is just a humiliation of the existing of so many “economists”, Law-makers, industrialists, etc.. in this country.
If legislation, Monitoring and Execution of laws cannot be independent and effective, with an independent and powerful ACA, two AG – Attorney General & Auditor General , the can of Worms will continue to grow. Eventually, “Annual Budget” will come up as “Dividend” of “Worms” – Bankrupt of those corporations at the expense of Bank loans from Public Deposits or Pensions or even foreign Loans??
Do we have to wait until 2020 to see the kind of “prosperities” when the oil revenue could have gone besides others?
with the additional 8.1 billion, i worked out that the deficit would shoot up to a frightening 8.1%. i hope my calculation is wrong:
1688/1.031=1637,
1688 being the expenditure estimate as per the economic report figure, divide it by 3.1% will get 1637, being the income estimate, therefore:
1769/1637=1.081,
1769 being the expenditure estimate as per the budget figure, income estimate doen not change, expenditure divided by income will get 8.1%, being the deficit.
can someone confirm if this is the correct calculation? Thanks!