Jeffrey queries Sabah’s Federal budget

KOTA KINABALU: Bingkor Assemblyman Jeffrey Kitingan doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry over a statement by Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan that Sabah was allocated RM22.1 billion for the period 2012-2013 alone by Putrajaya while collecting only RM8.3 billion from the state.

“Rahman Dahlan is making the Federal government look foolish with his figures,” said Jeffrey. “Sabahans are not ignorant fools to swallow such figures.”

Jeffrey, who is also the Star Sabah Chief, was giving his take on Rahman Dahlan’s comments on the sidelines of a public forum over the weekend in Kota Kinabalu.

The Federal minister’s figures have been widely shared on the social media, especially Facebook, and ridiculed all around.

Jeffrey held that Rahman Dahlan has understated the figures on revenue from Sabah.

For starters, he said, Sabah contributed RM36.48 billion in oil revenue alone for the period 2012-2013 and another RM26.6 billion for the following period.

He pointed out that under the 40th Schedule of the Federal Constitution, Sabah was entitled to receive 40 per cent of the revenue the Federal government collected from the state.

“If the Federal government collected only RM8.3 billion in revenues from Sabah during the period 2012-2013, the state should only receive RM3.32 billion and not the RM22.1 billion cited by him,” he argued. “Is the Federal government being so generous to Sabah at the expense of the other states?”

The opposition politician claimed that a big chunk of Federal funds actually received by Sabah are in the form of salaries for Malayans employed by the Federal civil service and GLCs in the state and disbursed for contracts secured in Sabah by companies based in the peninsula.

Taking the argument further, the Bingkor Assemblyman recalled that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced during the 2014 Budget that Sabah and Sarawak would receive RM2.3 billion each for the year.

“If Sabah and Sarawak were two of the 13 states in Malaysia, as the Minister absurdly suggested during the public forum, they would have received a fairer share of RM6.15 billion each, not RM2.3 billion,” he said.

He urged Rahman Dahlan to come clean on Federal allocations for Sabah and Sarawak, how they were divided into operating expenditure and development, and how much was actually disbursed.

He also wants the minister to make a full disclosure of the revenue the Federal government collects from Sabah and Sarawak.

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