Pertubuhan Keluarga Dusun Talantang Sabah
KOTA KINABALU (Thursday Aug 10): Pertubuhan Keluarga Dusun Talantang Sabah (Sakag Talantang) has come out in full supports for the State Government in establishing the State Government Special Trust Fund.
Ramdi Indang, president of the native NGO, said the formation of the trust fund was long overdue, given the importance of Sabah to have control of financial resources obtained from donations or contributions from the state government, government agencies, the corporate sector, non-governmental organisations and individuals.
“Sakag Talantang fully supports the government in establishing the trust fund, “ he said in a statement today.
The Sabah State Legislative Assembly yesterday passed the Government Trust Funds (Amendment) Bill 2023 to establish the State Government Special Trust Fund.
Finance Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun said the establishment of the fund was an initial preparation to keep the annual allocations from the federal government that had not been used up, should they agree not to have them returned.
Ramdi believed that with the trust fund, the State Government would be able to administer financial for development projects without having to refer or obtain approval from other parties.
Tabling the Bill, Masidi told the assembly the special trust fund would assist the state government in carrying out various programmes or activities, particularly those involving contingencies such as disaster relief.
“The fund is also for (carrying out) poverty eradication programmes, the provision of social facilities such as for education and health, the construction and maintenance of roads and slopes, water and electricity as well as other development,” he said when tabling the bill.
“To implement the establishment of this trust fund, the Government Trust Fund Enactment (Sabah Cap.9) needs to be amended to include a new note on this State Government Special Trust Fund into the Enactment Schedule. This amendment is in line with the requirement of Section 10(1)(b)(i) Financial Procedure Act 1957,” he said.
He said there were several programmes and activities not listed under the supply and development expenditure funding.
Programmes and activities need to be created to address unexpected problems such as disasters.
Hence, the State Government must take initiatives to set up the State Government Special Trust Fund to cover any lack of allocation to be channelled to ministries, departments, district offices or State Government agencies that will implement, among others, the following programs and activities:
• Natural disaster prevention and recovery programs which include flood disasters, typhoons, fires, earthquakes, landslides, droughts, disease outbreaks and epidemics;
• Poverty eradication programmes;
• Programme for the provision of social service facilities which includes the provision of learning equipment facilities and health equipment; Infrastructure and utility services that include the construction, rehabilitation and upgrading of bridges, roads, slopes and other support facilities including the provision of electricity, water and sewerage utilities; and
• Any expenditure approved by the special committee that is not included in the matters mentioned such as aid to disaster victims such as flood and fire victims.
“The financial source of the State Government Special Trust Fund is a contribution from the trust fund in the State Government’s annual expenditure, the amount of which cannot be determined at this time. In addition, the State Government’s Special Trust Fund can receive donations from government agencies, corporate bodies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as well as from individuals and philanthropists,” he said.
“The State Government’s Special Trust Fund was also established as an initial preparation to put the Federal allocation in case the Federal Government agrees not to withdraw any of the current financial year’s allocation if it is not used up,” Masidi said.
He added that the Sabah State Finance Ministry will administer and control the State Government Special Trust Fund.
“For that purpose, an accounting officer, who is responsible for accounting for the receipt of funds into the trust fund, will be appointed by the Finance Ministry’s permanent secretary,” he said.
“Therefore, the establishment of this trust fund is important to ensure that the State Government has sufficient funds to cover any lack of allocation, especially in ensuring that the State development programmes are implemented smoothly, including to comfort the people when they are in distress and in need of immediate assistance from the State Government,” he said.
Nine State Assemblymen debated the Bill. They were Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal (Senallang), Jonnybone J Kurum (Telupid), George Hiew Vun Zin (Karamunting), Datuk Abdul Ghani Mohd Yassin (Nabawan), Datuk Dr Yusof Yacob (Sindumin), Norazlinah Arif (Kunak), Azhar Matussin (Darau), Datuk Masiung Banah (Kuamut) and Assaffal P. Alian (Tungku).
Masidi thanked the nine who took part in the debate and said that usually, in the evening, not many would partake in a debate but the issue discussed was very important and surpassed (a) political issue.
“It focused on what we can do to develop Sabah and one of it is to ensure all the Federal allocation for Sabah — every cent — is used for Sabah,” he said.
He also said that Opposition leader Shafie, who is also Semporna member of parliament, welcomed the Bill and the latter had promised to bring the issue up to parliament.
“We hope all 25 parliament members in Sabah will speak in one voice for the sake of developing Sabah. We have different political views but we have one view and that is we all love Sabah,” said Masidi.
He said one of the issues is to ensure all Federal allocations that are announced, right up to the cent, are used in its entirety in Sabah.
“All of us would agree that we love Sabah. We want Sabah to grow. We want to ensure that Sabah, a State that has high growth potential. Perhaps the time has come for all assemblymen, we can agree to disagree, but when it comes to Sabah, we should agree in the interest of Sabah,” he said.
Masidi also guaranteed that the trust fund will be controlled and managed with care.
“There is compliance with the treasury instruction. It is not a short cut for us to use the money as we like. We skipped several procedures that sometimes become problems for us to speed up implementations,” he said.
Masidi then cited an example: “Recently, we received a special interim allocation from the central government that has already been announced for the welfare of the people for the construction of SMJ houses.
But after investigation, it cannot be used just like that. It must be deposited into a trust before it can be used according to our plan.
Because of that, this trust fund will facilitate the implementation without sacrificing on good governance that should be implemented by all government departments.”
He also assured that there is no hidden agenda in creating the trust fund and the only agenda is for Sabah to be able to implement their responsibility systematically and without delay excuses.
“We will be very transparent. We will ensure to provide reports from time to time.
Moreover, all the money that enters into the trust fund must be audited. To ensure that there are no other intentions aside from the intention of speeding up the development in Sabah, we will have a high standard of audit and financial control,” he said.
Masidi also explained that the trust fund would be useful in disaster situations where the State Government will have the financial means to aid the people who are affected.
He added that the State Government are still negotiating the matter with the central government, and that he hoped all the Sabah assemblymen and parliament members will put a united front to form one voice with the hope of facilitating the Chief Minister (Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor) in his negotiation with the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) so that the Federal Government will agree to channel all the development allocation assistance to the fund.
“If I compare between the past and the present, we have suffered massive losses … sometimes it is announced as RM5 billion but we only manage to use RM4 billion so we lose RM1 billion a year. In five years, we will lose RM5 billion from the RM25 billion for development we should receive. But we actually only receive RM20 billion,” he said.
“Why do we need this trust fund? Because the current procedure of the government now is that monies not utilised by the end of the year will be returned to the central government and so on,” said Masidi.
He also reminded members of the August House that the trust fund is not a substitute to the annual budget which contains expenditure headings.
“The trust fund is only to facilitate implementations, that is all … we want to respond fast to root problems, at least there are means to settle the problems to ensure they are resolved,” he said.
Masidi also said he understood that there are many problems in Sabah.
“Many of them are legacy problems that we inherited for ages. They were not formed yesterday or when the new government took over. This talk about poverty, I was a government officer in the 70’s and the poverty problem already existed in Kota Marudu, Pitas and Kudat.”
“But the problem is, we are certain to be ashamed because until now, we are still unable to solve this problem. This is our challenge. I know poverty is a relative problem. Every State and country face poverty problems because even those who are no longer poor can return to becoming poor.”
“According to the American census in 2021, 16.3 percent of Americans are poor. But this is not an excuse to not solve it. This is a reminder that poverty will always be around and it means that the one who rules must solve the problem,” he said.
Masidi also said that Sabah now has 27 trust funds, some of which are good and many which are not good.
