UMNO Youth chief Datuk Dr Muhammad Akmal Saleh has stressed that all development projects proposed by ministries must first obtain approval from the Finance Ministry before implementation.
He said ministries could not spend at will without the ministry’s approval, even when funds had already been allocated.
“Which means the Finance Ministry will examine and assess the government’s financial capacity to determine whether the proposed development can be carried out.
“If it can, only then will the Finance Ministry grant approval, while the ministry making the request will act as the implementing agency,” he said in a Facebook post today.
Akmal added that any spending exceeding an approved allocation must also receive prior approval from the Finance Ministry before being carried out by the respective ministry.
He said the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKDW) was not the only ministry whose spending had exceeded its approved allocation.
“There are also other ministries whose expenditure exceeded the allocated amount.
“For example, the Education Ministry in 2024. The amount allocated was RM58.726 billion, but the amount spent was RM59.871 billion,” he said.
Akmal said the issue raised by Deputy Prime Minister and Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was not about his ministry spending beyond its allocation without approval.
Instead, he said, the issue was that development projects requested by KKDW had already received approval from the Finance Ministry, but the funds had nevertheless not reached KKDW.
His remarks come amid scrutiny over ministry expenditure and the process governing projects that exceed their initially approved allocations.
