PKR rep defends Mitra head following Waytha’s criticism of fund usage

Batu Uban assemblyman A Kumaresan (left) said former unity minister P Waytha Moorthy (centre) should look at his own achievements before passing judgment on those of Mitra special committee chairman R Ramanan.

PETALING JAYA:

A PKR assemblyman from Penang has come to the defence of Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) special committee chairman R Ramanan, who came under attack from former national unity minister P Waytha Moorthy yesterday over Mitra’s spending.

Ramanan had previously claimed that Mitra had achieved all its 2023 targets but Waytha questioned the apparent lack of transparency in how the unit had used its RM100 million annual funding, saying that Mitra did not provide any information about the selection mechanism, programmes, targets and outcomes.

However, Batu Uban assemblyman A Kumaresan called on Waytha to examine his own achievements in handling Mitra before pointing fingers at the Sungai Buloh MP.

In a statement, Kumaresan claimed that under Waytha’s stewardship, Mitra only spent RM1.16 million, or 1% of its RM100 million annual funding for 2018, followed by RM58 million (or 59%) for 2019.

“This means that in just two years, only RM59.2 million was utilised, while there was RM141 million in unused or returned funds.

“Wasn’t it Waytha who supervised Mitra at that time and why was it that these funds were not fully utilised?

“The balance of funds for most of the (Mitra’s) programmes in 2019 was pushed to the following years, while funds had to be used to pay commitments from the previous year,” said Kumaresan.

Checks made by FMT on the Senate written replies on Sept 9, 2020, found the 2018 and 2019 figures mentioned by the assemblyman to be accurate.

Kumaresan said all of Mitra’s programmes, together with targets to optimise fund usage and the socioeconomic impact on the Indian community had been reported by the local press.

“For the first time, the allocation given by the government has been utilised 100% through various programmes and grants.

“Of course, the impact on the target groups can’t be measured in a short period of time, especially when the 2023 programmes are still at the early stage of implementation and will be extended to 2024.

“As a former Pakatan Harapan minister, he needs to re-evaluate his own achievements before pointing his finger at the 2023 achievements,” Kumaresan added.

He also praised the continuous improvements made by Ramanan’s special committee, which led to the unit receiving a “low risk” score from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission this year.

FMT has reached out to Waytha for comment.

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PKR rep defends Mitra head following Waytha’s criticism of fund usage

A Kumaresan says Mitra under R Ramanan’s stewardship has fully utilised its RM100 million allocation, which P Waytha Moorthy failed to do when he supervised the unit from 2018 to February 2020.