Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Bad Audit Result, SUK, PAS Clashes, Where Is Kedah's CM?

We are well aware that Kedah's 2011 Audit Report showed such surprising result. Few of the 'greatest' findings would be how five housing contractors whom were not registered and owned by an individual who has family ties was appointed, and their financial records for their project was not complete, filled with doubt and not precise, which brings to the question of corruption when same claims were made while a few of those claims were made on houses which never existed. The state government in the other hand clearly seemed to have lost control when a few high risk projects such as the 99 East Project in Langkawi which suffered loss due to carelessness in breaking the agreement and Logging and Farming project in Papua New Guinea which was continued without observation which enabled a Managing Director to take a loan worth millions of USD from a foreign company without any complete loan agreement as well as not having any approval from the Board of Directors. The state government even ignored their responsibility as an Islamic government as they did not even run any meeting in awarding Halal Certificate for products in 2011 and all of the halal certificate which were issued by the Chairman without giving any presentation to the Committee, following the procedure. However, this audit finding should not a surprise for us if we are to consider the administration in Kedah which has always been hit by argument among themselves. We are well aware how PAS Kedah has never been in peace with open clashes between their leaders who simply crave for power. And with GE coming, each of them became even vicious to ensure that they would be protected. Utusan Malaysia recently revealed how PAS pushed Secretary of the Government, Datuk Rasli Bin Basir who was accused of being 'UMNO'. It all began when he decided to transfer Ahmad Fisol Md Nor, Kubang Pasu's District Officer to Kuala Muda. Ahmad Fisol has been famous for being a loyal PAS follower ever since BN was in power. His excitement when PAS managed to rule Kedah was never a secret, he even held multiple programs with PAS. Ahmad Fisol felt like the post of SUK fits him best due to his 'loyalty' towards PAS. Thus, his influence in PAS was fully used to pressure Datuk Rasli. Datuk Rasli has been in service with Kedah's state government since 1976 as Assistant Collector of Land Revenue at Kota Setar District Land Department. With background education from Universiti Malaya as well as Ohio University, Athens, America, he has been in various services within the government. He was a District Officer, Project Officer, Project Director, Land Administrator, Financial Officer until he was appointed as a Board Member of Kedah State Development Corporation in 2006 before he was appointed as Secretary of the State. That is why his performance towards Kedah should not be questioned. He is a very responsible and professional officer who do not mix between politics with administration. And that is probably one of the biggest problem is PAS where he does not consider any interest in any political parties, including PAS in making decisions. Kedah's Chief Minister, Dato’ Seri Azizan Razak seemed uninterested in providing any reactions regarding Kedah Audit Report. Instead, it was rumored that he is supporting Ahmad Fisol to keep on pressuring Datuk Rasli. It is clear that PAS puts politics in front of rakyat where they are only interested with 'who' has the post rather than caring about 'what is happening' to the state, Even though there was strong evidence showing weaknesses in financial management for the state, no serious statements were made by their leaders to solve the issue. We need to remember that the audit found that the financial surplus for 2011 was only recorded at around RM2 million, RM20 million decrease within a year with 'great projects' recording illogical losses. Thus, if this continues, just imagine what would happen to the state if PAS were to rule for another term, or even just for a year?

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