ISKANDAR PUTERI, Nov 26 ― The Johor state government has been practising prudent spending with efficient financial management on the state’s finance.

Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Dr Sahruddin Jamal said in 2019, the state government continued to spend towards strengthening and promoting economic growth and improving living standards.

"Efficiency, accountability and transparency are key principles of governance to ensure good practice in managing current public spending,” he said.

He added measures were taken in cost saving and revenue collection and it is clear that the Pakatan Harapan government has taken steps to ensure better and more efficient government financial management.

"Infrastructure projects with high impact on the economy and people-based programmes continued to be prioritised, covering various programmes and projects aimed at increasing capital investment, productive capacity and improving living standards,” he said.

The Bukit Kepong assemblyman said this when replying a question by Mohd Izhar Ahmad (PH-Larkin) about PH's total state expenditure compared to the previous government in the State Legislative Assembly sitting today.

Meanwhile, the mentri besar said the reduction in development allocation in Johor especially for this year was due to the approach by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government which focused on the quality of development growth.

He said the allocation for development expenditure for Budget 2017 was RM 763.3 million while for 2018 it was RM700 million and RM600 million was allocated for development purposes in 2019.

This means the government will only spend once the study on priority and project outputs have identified the areas for maximum returns to the people.

"Most importantly, the government needs to ensure that the benefits of development growth are shared among the people. It can be concluded here that the government is now focusing more on spending based on the needs of the people,” he said when responding to Mohd Izhar's supplementary question about the differences between the previous and current governments. ― Bernama