KOTA KINABALU, Jan 28 — After confusion and controversy over Sabah’s financial health, state treasurer Rusdin Riman said today that the state grew its reserves by over RM4 billion last year.
However, he declined to state the full figure of the state’s financial reserves prior to a full federal audit.
“We are in a good position, that’s all I can say. Looking at the 2017 financial report of almost RM4 billion in reserves, our report for 2018 shows a slight increase but I cannot say how much yet because it has not been audited.
“I cannot reveal the figure but definitely there will be a slight increase, compared to the previous years’,” he said when speaking to reporters after his department’s event here today.
Rusdin said that the official figure will be released once the National Audit Department has signed off on it.
“According to our schedule, we should be able to prepare our draft financial account before the end of the month and submit it for audit for February. It depends on the audit director, but it should be very soon,” he said.
In May last year, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal reportedly claimed that Sabah was in financial difficulty and the previous Sabah Barisan Nasional administration did not leave RM4 billion reserve as claimed.
Shafie, who is also Sabah’s finance minister, insisted that the state’s reserves were in the negative.
Since then, however, the auditor-general’s report for 2017 has indicated otherwise, leading the state’s Opposition to dispute Shafie’s claim.
Today, Rusdin also said the state treasury was preparing to fully implement the accrual accounting from cash basis.
“We still have to update the staff in government departments and ministries over this new development so we will have a committee to monitor this,” he said.
He also said that the new system, as well as a recent reshuffle of senior officers, would address issues such as delayed payments to workers and firms.
