KUCHING: It will be good for the new unity government to be prudent in spending and also start stopping leakages to prevent any further wastage in Budget 2023, which will be tabled on Friday (Feb 24).
Sarawak Business Federation secretary-general Datuk Jonathan Chai said it is high time for the government to take the Auditor General’s Report seriously and make sure those culprits who abused the procurement process do not go unpunished.
To ensure accountability and transparency, he said, there should not be any direct negotiations for any government contracts from now on.
Speaking to New Sarawak Tribune, he said, there should be a comprehensive overhaul of the subsidy system for fuels and other essential goods like cooking oil and sugar in order to make sure that only those who are in the B40 category benefit from such subsidies.
“We don’t want to see any of our subsidised 1-kg packages of cooking oil end up in the shelves of a grocery store in Southern Thailand or any visitors from our neighbouring countries filling up the petrol tank of their vehicles with our subsidised RON95,” he said.
Chai said the government needs to put a stop to all these leakages and the prevailing system of subsidies should be revamped so that the beneficiaries are targeted rather than across the board.
“Apart from that, we need to slim down our bloated civil service in the long run. Some conscientious efforts coupled with political will are required to carry out reforms in our civil service.
“More than 80 per cent of our annual budget was allocated for operational expenditure, the bulk of which was spent on salaries, allowances and pensions of civil servants,” he said,
In addition, he said, there should be a review of the pensions paid to the politicians and many of whom have been enjoying a substantial amount of pensions for different positions held throughout their political career.
Chai felt it is fair to revise the law to allow for them to enjoy only the highest pension attached to any of their previous positions.
Apart from addressing the leakages, he said, the country needs to embrace the importance of research and development (R&D) to leapfrog the economy from the middle income trap and to help businesses, especially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs, he said, need to upgrade their operations in tandem with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0), which conceptualises rapid changes to technology, industries and societal patterns and processes in the 21st century due to increasing inter-connectivity and smart automation.
