Government Expenditure

The Auditor General’s report is out. As expected there are some interesting findings as usual. The highlights for this year are as follows:

• A local council has paid RM 871 for a toilet Sign. (I’m just wondering, if the toilet sign itself can cost so much, how much the toilet bowl would cost….. any bet guys)
• They also bought spiral pendent lights for RM 38,700, which can be found for as low as RM 1500 on the market
• Not to mention they also bought a bedroom number at RM 542 each. The number can be bought for RM 38 at the store. (I guess this is what happens when people who are not good with numbers were sent to buy numbers)

Compare this with what happened last year:

• A local college paid RM 42,320 for a laptop (I guess it deserves an entry into Malaysia Book of Records as Malaysia’s most expensive laptop and the person who approved its purchase should be given the Smart Consumer Award for that year)
• The college also paid between RM1,398 and RM2,945 for 204 teaching manuals. It comes in a nice comb binding (the news didn’t mention whether it is Photostat copies or not, so can’t speculate on that) and the best part is they never used it after paying RM358,476 of our tax money …. . (This what we call Smart college…don’t even know what they need, and we send our children to them to be educated….no wonder once they are out they can’t get jobs)
• Also another college paid RM224 for a screwdriver set (of four) which had a RM40 market price ( part of our country’s smart college network I guess)
• Some other agencies paid RM5,700 for a car jack that would normally cost a mere RM50 (how would you call the person who made this purchase….Jack XXX….no prise for guessing that)

These are just a sample of the type of expenditure that our government undertakes every year. I’m sure they have exercised maximum caution and prudence in spending our hard earned tax money so that it can benefit the rakyat (people).

But, I’m just curious. If we can spend money like this and buy things at these super inflated prices, that means we are a damn bloody rich country, isn’t it ( better agree with this, because if not we can be construed as being very dumb or corrupt, which is not so nice).

If we are so rich that we can overpay for normal things like this, then I’m pretty sure the government is rich enough to extend and increase the subsidy for Petrol, Sugar, Flour and other essentials of the people. So I hope in future the government will cut their expenses rather than subsidies. Now I know why foreign businesses like to do business in Malaysia, they just love to do business with our government so much.