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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