Guan Eng accuses BN of excessive spending before GE14

PETALING JAYA: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has accused the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government of excessive spending months before the May 9 general election.
In a statement today, Lim said that Accountant-General Datuk Saat Esa confirmed that only RM450 million was left for government spending on April 30, just before BN handed over power to Pakatan Harapan (PH) on May 9.
"The Consolidated Revenue Account has dropped drastically from RM11.86 billion in December 2017 to RM5.73 billion in January 2018, RM5.34 billion in February 2018, RM3.91 billion in March 2018 and only RM450 million in April 2018. This is 96% or RM11.41 billion in only four months," he said.
Lim added that it was a challenging five months for PH after being left with so little.
"Despite being left with only RM450 million by the previous government, the new PH government is still able to meet all our monthly financial commitments, especially paying the monthly RM8 billion in salaries and pensions of civil servants, including bonuses," he added.
Lim also added that Saat reiterated that only monies in the Consolidated Revenue Account can be spent for government expenditure and not from the Consolidated Fund.
"There are those who claim otherwise, citing as proof the funds in the Cash Account that BN left PH with billions of ringgit in the Cash Account as of 30 April, 2018. This is unfortunately not true. Not all monies in the Cash Account can be used for government expenditure."
The Cash Account together with the Investment Account, both form a common pool of cash collected, deposited/invested, and held for three separate accounts, specifically the Consolidated Revenue Account, Consolidated Loan Account and Consolidated Trust Account.
"Hence, the Cash Account and Investment Account cannot entirely be spent for government expenditure because they do not entirely belong to the Consolidated Revenue Account.
"Only the Consolidated Revenue Account can be used for government expenditure," he added.