Kelantan denies dipping into RM400 million aid from Putrajaya to buy luxury cars

Updated 4 years ago · Published on 17 Jan 2020 2:35PM · 7 Comments

THE RM400 million funding from the federal government last year to Kelantan was to improve the economy and welfare of the people, and not for buying luxury vehicles for members of the state government, said Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah.

Amar said, so far, the state government had strategised several plans to use the money for people in the state.

“Some of the assistance will be used for affordable housing and clean water supply. The latter should have been resolved after Kelantan co-operated with the National Water Services Commission (Span) but Span had its own problems, so we had to find other ways to solve the issue.

“The state government has a plan in place and we are going to look at priority concerns in spending this money,” he told reporters after delivering a lecture at Medan Ilmu, Kota Baru today.

Commenting on the purchase of Mercedes vehicles for members of the state government, Amar said the matter had been decided since 2018.

“We made the purchase in stages using the state government’s budget. For three consecutive years, we have had surplus in the budget including RM45 million last year, so logically speaking it is within our budget.

“The decision to buy the cars was made before the federal government gave us the assistance, so this is a non-issue,” he said.

He said it was standard practice to change state government official vehicles every five years but Kelantan would take between 10 and 12 years to do so.

“For instance, I’ve been using the Mercedes since 2007 and the maintenance costs over the last few years is around RM200,000 so it is better to get a new one.

“At least the cost of maintenance within five years of using the new vehicle is free. That’s our view,” he said. – Bernama, January 17, 2020.

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Comments

  • Whenever they have govt money, they will buy luxury cars. U think they really care if their citizens have rice on the table. Doesn't matter where the money come from, 1mdb keh, Federal govt keh, Ajib keh, Azmin keh, once money in their hands, they will start buying luxury cars and expensive house. Many examples. U trust these leaders to help u, u need to learn how to tolerate hunger.

    Posted 4 years ago by James Wong · Reply

  • The state government only made a surplus of 45 million and already 10% of it is used to buy luxury cars for themselves. The 10% could have been used for more tangible things for the suffering Rakyat in Kelantan.

    Posted 4 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • PAS supporters are so gullible. They dont even know they are taken for a ride.

    Posted 4 years ago by Elyse Gim · Reply

  • Have Budget surplus but cant pay salaries . Just F off already.

    Posted 4 years ago by Kinetica Cho · Reply

  • If anything, PAS deputy MB has proven through his statements that that they dont know how to manage the states financial situation.

    Posted 4 years ago by Rupert Lum · Reply

  • Beginning of downfall... Judging from previous history of Islamic civilization

    Posted 4 years ago by Zabidi Hussin · Reply

  • 45 million ' surplus' indicates inefficient spending

    Posted 4 years ago by Zabidi Hussin · Reply