DAP lawmaker chides PM’s Department for giving one-liner answers

DAP’s Anthony Loke slammed Prime Minister's Department for answering questions related to Datuk Seri Najib Razak with a one liner. – The Malaysian Insider pic, March 16, 2015.

The DAP today slammed Prime Minister's Department for answering questions related to Prime Minnister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with a one liner, which it said shows Putrajaya's lack of accountability.

Anthony Loke (DAP-Seremban) said this included question on the path covered by the government jet after Najib returned to the country to attend to the flood situation after a golfing session with US president Barack Obama.

He said this new habit in providing one liner answer was a worrying and dangerous, as if trying to indicate that the PM's spending was exempted from accountability.

Loke also questioned if Najib's family holidays were also considered official business for which the official government jet could be utilised.

Loke on March 10 had asked the government to state the locations the jet, bearing the registration number 9M-NAA, had travelled to in December and the cost incurred.

The parliamentary reply he received only said that the plane was used for official purpose by Najib and that the cost was in accordance with the spending limits accorded to the prime minister.

Unhappy, Loke posed another the question on March 12, this time asking where the jet had travelled to in 2014 and the costs involved including for the hire purchase, maintenance and fuel.

The written reply this time merely stated that the jet was used for 65 official trips in 2014 and that the cost involved was in accordance with the services it was used for.

Loke today also chided the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim for acting as a postman by merely reading out in Parliament the replies prepared by the PM's Department. 

He added that this has never happened during the time of Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, when he was minister in the PM's Department, where Nazri would give full and proper answers to questions posed.

- TMI