Former Malaysian PM Ismail denies claim that billions in Covid-19 expenditure unrecorded
Former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob denied that there was RM620 billion in unrecorded expenditure by the Treasury Department. He said it was fake news as all expenses were recorded in the government’s accounts.
On his official social media accounts, Ismail shared a post by a person known as Yusoff Bachek, who uses the handle @mohayusba, that he said was untrue.
In his post, Yusoff had claimed that RM620 billion was unaccounted for by the Treasury from 2020 to 2022 during the movement control order to control the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The post alleged that this was why former prime ministers Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail did not want others to become the prime minister.
Ismail said: “The total value of eight stimulus packages was RM530 billion, where a big portion of it did not involve government expenses (such as the bank loan moratoriums).
“Direct government spending was only worth RM10 billion and this allocation was approved by Parliament unanimously,”
On March 16, 2020, then prime minister Muhyiddin had announced that an additional RM620 million would be spent to help the economy withstand the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.