DAP lawmaker Teo Nie Ching today slammed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said for failing to provide the cost of a Permata trip to London in May.

The Kulai MP said she had written to ask Prime Minister Najib Razak for an answer about cost of the London trip, including details and outcome of the trip by the prime minister’s wife and Permata patron Rosmah Mansor, and two other female ministers: Azalina and Rohani Abdul Karim, the Women, Family and Community Development Minister.

“It was just a simple question but she can’t give me the cost approved by the Cabinet,” Teo said.

“If she can provide me with three-page answer on the details and outcome of the trip, why can’t she give a one-line answer on the cost?”

“This is another example which shows that, although our questions are not rejected, the answer is rubbish,” she said in a press conference at Parliament today.

Azalina had answered Teo’s question on the prime minister’s behalf.

Aside from explaining five programmes that were carried out during the trip and their outcomes, Azalina in her reply said the cost was approved by the Cabinet using an allocation from the Prime Minister’s Department.

Teo said if Azalina was confident that the London trip was fruitful, she should have disclosed the cost.

“She should also have excused herself from answering this question because she was one of the ministers (on the trip),” she said.

Rosmah was in London May 4-10 to expand the Permata programme. She also gave a speech and opend the Nobelist Mindset, a programme organised by Permata Pintar with the Royal Society of London.

She also witnessed the signing of two letters of intent, the first between Permata Pintar and Cambridge University and the other between Permata Insan and Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford. – July 25, 2017.