Perak govt issues cost-saving guidlines

The Perak government has issued a State Financial Circular guidelines to all state departments to be prudent in their expenditure and to check wastage of public funds.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaludin said the guideline was aimed at reducing the continuous deficit budgets in the past four years.

The belt-tightening measures include no overtime allowances, savings on electricity charges for fans, lights and air-conditioners by shutting them during tea and lunch breaks.

They must also be prudent in their use of office supplies like stationery and paper and reduce the purchase of newspapers.

The renovation of state offices or renting new office buildings is out of question; working visits and overseas trips by state civil servants have to first get the approval of the State Financial Officer.Nizar said this in his reply to a written question by Hutan Melintang asemblyman S.Kesavan in the state assembly sitting which ended last Thursday.
Kesan wanted to know what cost-effective measures were being taken by the Pakatan Rakyat(PR) government to reduce wastage of public funds and the amount that can be saved by such wastage compared with the previous BN government.
Nizar said:" We spent only RM1.1 million for this year's Merdeka celebrationsss compared wityh RM2.6 million by the BN in 2007. We are also taking other measures to cut down on expenditure which will bear fruit this year."
Later, Opposition Leader and BN whip Datuk Seri MOhammad Tajol Rosli Ghazali, in his denate on the 2009 state budget, took to task the PR executive councillors fpr abandong the Proton Perdana state official cars to be replaced with new Toyota Camry.
Tajol said the Proton is located in Perak and if the Perak PR state governmant did not support the national car, then it might set off a chain reaction whereby other states might also follow Perak and opt.