Voon Lee Shan
KUCHING (Aug 21): Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president Voon Lee Shan claimed yesterday that the Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance (BKSS) financial support packages did not reach many Sarawakians.
He said the Sarawak government, which had spent RM4.5 billion on the BKSS packages, ought to review how the money had been channeled to the target group.
“Although the state government had dished out six iterations of BKSS worth RM4.5 billion to fight this Covid-19 pandemic and to help Sarawakians and businesses in these difficult times, too many people said help did not reach them.
“The state government needs to review how the money has been spent or food aids distributed so that citizens hard-hit by the pandemic could get proper help,” he said in a statement.
According to Voon, many people complained that they could not get any food assistance at all from the government.
“And many said food baskets received by them contained very little items and could only last them for a few days.
“They said, it was a one-time handout and after that they never receive any. The long period of pandemic has caused much suffering to them,” he said.
Since the sum spent is huge, he pointed out that the community has the right to know how the money has been spent.
As such, he called on the state government to be transparent on how the RM4.5 billion had been spent.
He asserted: “It is proper for the state government to come up with a proper audit report to be examined by the public of spending made.”
Voon opined the fight against Covid-19 and strategies to revive the economy had not been successful even though Sarawak had spent RM4.5 billion on various financial aid packages.
“Something could be wrong somewhere and the state government need to review all strategies implemented so that more effective measures could be found to replace the ineffective ones,” he said.