Rafizi moves to stop 'spend first, approve later' policy
Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli will be filing a Private Member's Bill in the next session of Parliament to stop the government's supplementary budget policy of spending money first, and getting the sums spent approved later.
"Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's practice of tabling supplementary budget bills after the allocation has been spent must stop immediately," Rafizi told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.
Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli will be filing a Private Member's Bill in the next session of Parliament to stop the government's supplementary budget policy of spending money first, and getting the sums spent approved later.
"Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's practice of tabling supplementary budget bills after the allocation has been spent must stop immediately," Rafizi told a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.
He said this was an insult to Parliament, adding that the prime minister was treating the House like a rubber stamp.
"I'm getting very fed up with this. It's about time we do something about this. What's the point of debating on something that you have spent?"
Yesterday the government tabled a Supplementary Supply Bill to add RM3.3 billion on to last year's federal budget.
Rafizi said this is not how things should be done, and proposed that supplementary budget bills be tabled at the beginning of the second half of each year.
"The supplementary budget should be discussed every half a year, most probably during the June Parliament sittings and the government should table it as pending review.
"They then should present to the House details on how much they have spent and how much more they plan to spend. It's a normal practice," he added.

