By Syauqi Jamil
KUALA LUMPUR: In its on going attempt to reduce wastage and the national debt, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will be implementing ‘zero-based budgeting’ policy from 2019 onwards.
Finance Minister Special Advisor Tony Pua Kiam Wee said this will differ than the practice used by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, where ministries have been using previous year’s budget as a baseline.
He said by seeking annual budget based on the previous year’s figures with an increase for the upcoming year would result to continuos increase in costs and wastage in resources that aren’t needed.
“MoF this year is starting a new process called zero-based budgetting. It means that ministries will start from scratch. They will have to draft plans for the upcoming year before writing it down for their budget request.
“Its more challenging and required more work but we hope this ethical process will break the problem of ministries always wanting more of the same resulting in wastage,” he said.
Speaking his opening speech at The Center to Combat Corruption & Cronyism’s (C4) Seminar and Report Launch: Procurement as Part of Good Governance in Malaysia, Pua said that the new practice will be a learning process for all ministries.
Admitting that it requires more effort as ministries can no longer ‘Copy and Paste’ their budget request, he said that the government will regardless implement this in an attempt to avoid unnecessary spendings.
He was referring to procurement problem sources citing an example based on a case study on the Customs Department who had bought too many shoes every year, despite an excess in stocks.
“How can something like that happen? One of the problem is simply the budget that was allocated for them. If they have a certain budget but didn’t use them then it will be wasted.
“This is because of the way a budget is prepared and designed. They take last year’s budget, usually put in more and submit to MoF and seek approval. Hence, the budget continues to increase,” he said.
