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THE manner which the Sarawak Assembly swiftly approved an additional RM100 million to the Premier’s Department to finance coming overseas trips is a big cause of concern, said Sibu DAP member of parliament, Oscar Ling.
He claimed that huge spending of taxpayers money lacked transparency.
"This latest development is very troubling as it involves a huge sum of taxpayers money just to finance those from the Premier’s Department to go for overseas trips.
"While we (DAP) acknowledge the need for overseas travels by those in the government for official duties as part of governance, there must be transparency.
"How such huge sum of money is being spent must come with public accountability.
"Such huge spendings for overseas trips by the Sarawak government have been questioned many times before, but still there has been no accountability," Ling said in a statement.
Ling is a veteran Sarawak DAP man and was Sarawak DAP election director for the 15th General Election.
He pointed out that the approval of such big sums of money via a supplementary bill meant that such spendings are way over the annual Budget tabled by the state ruling government.
"The absence of a transparent mechanism in Sarawak to provide accountability for expenditure of public money by state leaders is very troubling," he stressed.
On May 26, attempts by Sarawak DAP state elected representatives to raise queries on alleged hefty financial spendings on overseas trips were shot down by State Assembly Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar.
The Speaker rejected the motion raised by Violet Yong who is DAP state assemblywoman for Pending and a similar motion by Chong Chien Jen, the DAP ADUN for Padungan. – May 28, 2025