Selangor to ask PKNS unit to return allowance for signing cheques
By Boo Su-Lyn, The Malaysian Insider
SHAH ALAM, Nov 15 – Selangor is cracking the whip on excessive expenditure by its investment companies, starting with telling officials from a Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) unit to return allowances given to sign cheques.
The state assembly approved Hulu Kelang assemblyman Saari Sungib’s request today for the chairman and directors of construction company PKNS Infra Berhad (PIB) to return the allowances they had received for signing cheques since March 2008.
“We want the allowance recipients who are still holding positions in the company to return their allowances to the company,” Saari told the state assembly.
In a press conference later, Saari said that the state government would instruct the PIB chairman and directors to return the allowances they had received since March 2008 when Pakatan Rakyat (PR) took control of the country’s wealthiest state.
“We want them to return the allowances since March 2008,” said Saari.
He added that about RM187,000 in allowances was given to the PIB chairman and directors in 2008 for signing cheques, according to the Auditor-General’s Report in 2008.
Saari noted that another PKNS subsidiary, Selangor Industrial Corporation (SIC), had also engaged in the same practice in 2009, based on the year’s Auditor-General’s Report.
According to him, the PIB chairman and four others were given regular stipends to sign the cheques.
“The chairman would get RM500 a month while four to five directors would get RM400 a month,” he said.
During the state assembly sitting today, Saari sought for the payments to be discontinued at once.
