The accountant-general has confirmed that the amount left in the government’s Consolidated Revenue Account as at April 30 was just RM450 million.
Consolidated Revenue Account:
- Dec 31 – RM11.86 billion balance
- Apr 30 – RM450 million balance
- 4 months – decline of RM11.41 billion, bulk of which allegedly spent on helping BN win GE14
The A-G, Saat Esa, also confirmed that the account had RM11.86 billion as of December 31, 2017, as announced by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng recently.
“The balance in the fund as at (these dates) are in line with the records maintained by the department,” Saat said in a statement today.
He also affirmed that this is the only account which the federal government can use to finance its operating expenses, which he confirmed was more than RM8 billion a month for emoluments and retirement benefits.
He added that the Consolidated Revenue Account is one of three accounts under the Consolidated Fund. The other two accounts are: Consolidated Loan Account and Consolidated Trust Account.
The A-G’s statement came as Lim and former prime minister Najib Razak are engaged in a war of words over the balance in the account just before the May 9 general election. Lim has demanded explanations from Najib, who has insisted that the figure is untrue.
In a statement on Sunday, Lim had accused the previous government of having spent the bulk of the money in the Consolidated Revenue Account to help Barisan Nasional win in the May 9 general election, which resulted in the significant decline in the account’s balance.
On Sept 5, Lim had accused Najib of being “dishonest” for accusing the government of misusing RM42.2 billion in the Consolidated Fund, while leaving it with only RM450 million in the unaudited Consolidated Revenue Account.
The finance minister alleged that his predecessor had failed to explain that of the RM42.2 billion, only RM11.86 billion was in the Consolidated Revenue Account, which in turn could have been transferred to the GST and Tax Refund Trust Account.
Instead of making the transfer, however, Lim said the amount in the Consolidated Revenue Account was found to have “deteriorated” to just RM450 million by April 30, 2018.
Najib previously said this was “impossible”, as he claimed the monthly Consolidated Revenue Account balance was never permitted to stray from a sum ranging between RM18 billion and RM20 billion.
When Pakatan Harapan came into power, the amount in the unaudited Consolidated Account stood at RM35.5 billion.
Lim said the new government increased the unaudited Consolidated Account amount to RM59.9 billion as of July 31 this year, of which RM3.81 billion was channelled into the unaudited Consolidated Revenue Account, despite the tax holiday starting June 1.