DAP wants audit on RM800 million flood relief fund

A picture of a devastated Manek Urai in Kelantan. The DAP wants Putrajaya’s RM800 million to be audited to ensure that the money is being solely spent on the victims of the flood. – The Malaysian Insider pic, January 7, 2015.Putrajaya’s RM800 million for flood relief efforts must be strictly audited, the DAP said, after the Public Accounts Committee yesterday expressed its desire to investigate the hefty sum.DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said an audit was needed to ensure there were no leakage or unscrupulous benefits from the huge allocation."No money should be spared to help the flood victims, but not a sen should be wasted."All government expenditure for the floods must directly benefit the victims," he said in a statement after his press conference at Kelantan's Pengkalan Chepa airport yesterday evening.Impoverished Kelantan was one of the worst-hit states as northeastern Malaysia bore the brunt of the country’s worst flood in decades.Although flood waters had subsided, recovery is going to take months as many lost their homes and were left with just clothes on their backs as they fled to higher ground to escape the flood.PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the RM800 million was a huge sum, and its management needed to be transparent."The PAC will ask the Finance Ministry and the National Security Council to explain in detail how the allocation will be channelled to flood victims," Nur Jazlan had told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.Lim said no one in Kelantan felt the effects of the aid, although he estimated that the east coast state needed about RM500 million to RM600 million for rebuilding."But where has this vast sum of money gone? I have visited Kota Baru three times, been in Kuala Krai twice, even in areas of Manek Urai as well as Gua Musang, and I definitely do not feel or sense that RM500 million to RM600 million had been spent in relief efforts," he said.He said Putrajaya must provide a breakdown of the spending in flood-hit states.He said students affected by the floods should be provided free uniforms, textbooks, exercise books, and all other necessary school supplies. This would evidently point to the expenditure directly benefiting them.He added that students should not be compelled to wear uniforms to school for at least the first month of schooling in the affected areas, until each of them have been supplied with two sets of uniforms.With yesterday being his third relief mission to Kelantan, the Gelang Patah MP noted his visit to the ground zero zones reinforced his view that an emergency must be declared to help the victims rebuild and start life anew.The 150,000 personnel in the armed forces should be mobilised to help the victims restart their lives in the shortest possible time, he added."This is why there must be a total change of mindset of the federal, state and local authorities to ensure that this recovery period is slashed from 'at least six months' to two months."And also why a declaration of state of emergency to centralise and mobilise all available resources to help the floods victims in Gua Musang and other parts of Kelantan," Lim said.Lim, who had been seeking a meeting with Datuk Seri Najib Razak to get him to adopt his five-point proposal at this year's first Cabinet meeting today, had eased the pressure after reports that the prime minister was down with food poisoning."As the prime minister is suffering from the infection after flood visits, I am not pressing for a meeting with him before the Cabinet meeting today."I wish him speedy recovery to be able to chair the Cabinet meeting to ensure that the ministers take collective decisions on the five-point action plan which I had outlined to him in my email," he said.In his e-mail sent to Najib on Sunday night, Lim urged Putrajaya to declare a state of emergency for the states and execute certain tasks such as forming a joint Barisan Nasional-Pakatan Rakyat action council and establishnig a Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into the flaws and gaps of relief efforts."I hope the Cabinet today will have good news for the flood victims, especially those in the worst-hit areas like Gua Musang and Kuala Krai in Kelantan and Temerloh and Mentakab in Pahang."In fact, it would be a good idea if the Cabinet makes it compulsory for every minister, including the prime minister and his deputy, to visit ground zero areas in Manek Urai, in particular devastated areas like Kg Manjor and Kg Maneki Urai Lama."Such visits will make ministers not only more knowledgeable but more humble and committed to ensure that mega flood relief expenditure directly benefit the victims and not the 'flood' barons, entrepreneurs cronies," he added.The floods in the peninsula that started in mid-December affected five states: Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak and Johor. At its height, more than 250,000 were displaced. – January 7, 2015.