By Sharunya Raja

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9: Former unity minister P Waytha Moorthy has rubbished his successor Datuk Halimah Sadique’s allegations that he mishandled the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit’s (Mitra) funds.

Waytha said that the contents of the statement by Halima is false and intended to damage his reputation as a former Minister.

“I challenge Minister Halimah to repeat those same allegations outside Parliament if she is convinced of the truth of what she uttered in Parliament.

“She should not hide behind the curtain of Parliamentary privileges and take a shot at me with false, malicious and wild accusations. I challenge her to do so immediately without any delay.

“If she does not do so she should plainly apologize for misleading Parliament and the Malaysian Indians.

He added that during his tenure, RM100 million per year was allocated for MITRA.

“However before spending the funds on socio-economic development on the community, I was briefed by the Auditor General’s office of the huge mishandling of funds by the previous Sedic management and the abuse of funds by a former Indian Minister and 2 Deputy Ministers under BN government .

“The funds allocated for socio-economic developments under me was short and long term plans benefitting in particular Indian youths, single mothers, high and niche skills job training, creation of high income jobs and creation of modern digital economy platforms for the Gen Z amongst others.

“Almost 200 programs were carefully selected and a total RM95,743,557.20 was approved as of 16th October 2019.

“However to ensure there was transparency accountability and responsibility towards spending of those funds and to ensure no more failed programs as previously happened, a 3 tier payment method was devised.

“The final payment would only be made once those programs were completed and obviously a certain amount was parked in the ceiling of RM500 million approved under RMK-11 to be utilised the following year, without the need to reduce the RM100 million approved for 2020,” he explained.

“Therefore Halimah’s allegations are baseless.

“Minister Halimah is ignorant and wrong to claim I had placed Mitra in debts. How can a development expenditure for economic upliftment of society be termed debt.

“It is investment in the community. She is insulting the Indians by saying expenditure on Indians caused debt to Mitra.

“I did not “overspend” a single cent. My answers in Parliament is still available for her to access,” he added.

On Wednesday, she told the Dewan Rakyat that Mitra only had RM65 million for 2020, with RM35 million used to pay off debts from programmes implemented previously, when the agency was under the prime minister’s department.

“You should ask the previous minister why he spent Mitra’s funds to the point that it eats into the 2020 and 2021 allocations,” Halimah said during in her winding-up speech on the 12th Malaysia Plan.