KOTA BARU: Eleven members of the Kelantan State Executive Council and its three ex-officio members have received a special payout of RM50,000 each.
Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said the special payout was given to members of the state administration based on the state government’s annual financial performance.
“Based on the state government’s income achievement, a special payment was made for last year. Maybe next year there won’t be any,“ he said when met here yesterday.
Asked if the gift was taken from the one-off allocation of RM400 million provided by the federal government to Kelantan late last year, he said that money had not been touched.
“We don’t always get this one-off allocation so we will use it for the benefit of the people. We will fine-tune our plans and we will announce what to do (with the RM400 million),“ he said.
Several online news portals today reported that the payout of up to RM50,000 each to state leaders and senior officials had caused dissatisfaction among state civil servants.
Even before the issue of purchase of 14 Mercedes Benz by the Kelantan government had died down, some people were now questioning the award to the leaders and top officials as the amount was far bigger than the total of RM1,000 each given to state civil servants.
The special payout was handed out in the second week of this month along with the additional payment received by the state civil servants. — Bernama
