I asked the Finance Minister,
what are the specific steps taken by the Project Management Unit to ensure that the Economic Stimulus Package of RM7 billion that is promised to be spent, will be carried out effectively?
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Tuan Yang Di-Pertua,
[unofficial translation]For your information, in-line with the announcement of the Stimulus Package of RM 7 billion on 4 November 2009, the Government has established the Project Management Unit (PMU) under the Finance Ministry. This unit will be headed by a senior officer that will have extensive experience and specific knowledge in the areas of financial planning and project management.
To ensure that the projects and programs will be executed efficiently, PMU has had a series of meetings with execution agencies (agensi pelaksana) dan have visited the various project sites. On top of this, YAB Deputy Prime Minister cum Minister of Finance, also has organize several cabinet-level meetings to ensure that the execution by the relevant ministries will be carried out efficiently and to ensure that it is kept within the execution schedule for maximum impact on the nations’ economy.
For your information members of the floor, in early January 2009, the Finance Ministry has issued an order warrant and the corresponding budget to all the effected ministries and agencies. As of this time, the ministries and agencies involved are busy implementing the projects and programs outlined in the Stimulus Package. Among the programs carried out now are Public Infrastructure Program (Penyelenggaraan Infrastruktur Awam-PIA) and Basic Infrastructure Project (Projek Infrastruktur Asas-PIAS) under the supervision of the Initiative Coordination Unit (ICU, or Unit Penyelarasan Pelaksanaan). Of the RM 600 million that is allocated presently, 5,433 projects totalling RM344.5 million is currently being implemented.
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My follow up comments and questions:
- In light of the current economic conditions – dire and gloomy – it is extremely important that our Finance Minister take coherent, direct and targeted measures to ensure any intended stimuli reaches the ordinary people. The number of cabinet meetings or visits the Minster makes to project sites help give some semblance on government plans though they remain less than sufficient to ensure our government is on top of things. The American example, while far from being perfect, is useful to study. For one thing, the Ministry could (read=should) come out with the number of projected employment each project creates (not for foreigners, mind you, since these will only be sent out to beloved Malaysia through remittances – ahem, a whopping 3.7% of GDP in 2006 alone!)
- Still, are these projects actually being implemented? Then the next step is to ensure corrective steps are taken when projects sway from their original objective. Leakages are are reduced when you have effective and transparent monitoring mechanism in place.
- Assuming that the steps of monitoring the implementation of the projects are duly taken by the PMU…
- How do you ensure that the cost to undertake these corrective steps are still within the original budget set out?
- What is the percentage of projects carried out that does not need any corrective action versus, the projects that do?
- Finally, how do you ensure that the PMU is performing at its best when the house has not been informed of the PMU code of conduct (assuming there is one to begin with)
A responsible answer to all the questions above are required to ensure that every sen spent on these projects truly have met their money’s worth. Failure to do so just proves that the government, particularly the Finance Ministry is not only inept and incapable to do their jobs properly, but also proves that they are unable to keep up with the responsibility to do what was entrusted upon them to do. But most importantly, we’re gonna end up paying heavily if we missed our targets since well, how else could anyone come up with another 7 billion? Not easy, my friend.
