PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin does not fear being investigated over the RM530 billion spent by his Perikatan Nasional (PN)-led administration when it was in power.
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He insisted that he had not misappropriated any of the funds when he was in the top post, dismissing claims that there were leakages in the government’s expenditure.
He ridiculed the RM600 billion figure being thrown around by those in the government, saying he believed they were referring to the eight stimulus packages worth RM530 billion unveiled by him when PN was in government.
“Of this RM530 billion, the majority of it was non-fiscal, meaning that it did not involve government expenditure,” he said in a Facebook post.
He said this included the various Employees Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawal facilities introduced, the reduction in EPF employee share statutory contribution rate and loan moratoriums.
“There was no way for me to embezzle these funds because they belong to individuals or banks, they did not involve government expenditure. As prime minister, I did not have any authority over the use of the funds,” he said.
The PN chairman said his administration had only spent RM83 billion in fiscal injections, which he maintained was not misused. “Not a single sen of these funds went into my personal account.”
He said if it was even true, the national audit department or Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) would have found out about it, since it was impossible for them to miss.
Muhyiddin said Bank Negara Malaysia would also have been notified of the transactions of large amounts of money into his account and a probe would have been launched.
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“But no such thing has happened. And to say that I’ve been barring any investigations as the prime minister wouldn’t be true because I resigned more than a year ago.
“I’m not afraid to be probed because I know that I did not embezzle any funds that belong to the people,” he said, adding that the finance ministry would have the details on Putrajaya’s expenditure for the eight stimulus packages when he was prime minister.
“If there is any wrongdoing or misappropriation of funds, the perpetrators should be punished by the law.”
The Bersatu president advised Pakatan Harapan and Umno to act like a government instead of playing politics, saying Malaysians wanted to see their plans for the country.
Certain parties have called for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to probe the apparent expenditure of RM600 billion by Muhyiddin’s administration.
Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil said an RCI was necessary to investigate in detail how such a huge amount of money was spent since the expenditure was done during the emergency period and Parliament was not able to provide a check and balance having been suspended at the time.
Hulu Langat MP Sany Hamzan also lodged a police report last month, calling for an investigation into possible leakages in the PN-led government’s expenditures between March 2020 and August 2021.-FMT