Gerakan led Penang for 39 years between 1969 and 2008 when it was a BN component party, after which it was succeeded by DAP. Gerakan left BN after the coalition’s loss in the 2018 general election.

Speaking at the Penang Gerakan delegates conference last week, state chief Oh Tong Keong said Penang’s reserves had dwindled from RM1 billion when DAP took over in 2008 to around RM50 million now. Oh also accused the state government of unnecessary spending.

In a statement today, Chow’s political secretary Lau Keng Ee said checks with the state finance department found that Penang’s consolidated fund account stood at RM373.59 million as of Dec 31, 2007.

Lau said the state government’s consolidated fund only held RM1 billion and above in the years ending 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.

“The state government generally welcomes feedback from all parties, but such feedback should be based on facts,” said Lau.

“As previously stated, the Penang state government does not deny that its consolidated fund has seen a yearly decline.

“It decreased from a balance of RM1.15 billion as of Dec 31, 2019 to RM155.94 million as of Dec 31, 2024. The current balance as of May 21 this year is RM235.55 million.”

He said the significant increase in the state government’s expenditure included the implementation of welfare programmes such as i-Sejahtera, assistance for religious schools, Chinese schools, Tamil schools, and other initiatives.

Lau said Chow had provided a detailed explanation of the matter during his winding-up speech at the state legislative assembly on May 22, as well as in a media statement on Sept 11.

During his winding-up speech, Chow said he aimed to restore the state’s consolidated revenue account to RM1 billion by the end of his tenure in 2028.