THE walkout by all 27 Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen during Tuesday's Perak state assembly sitting was deliberate and not because of the suspension of former menteri besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin.

Rather, it was because they were caught with their pants down after all the facts and figures on the supplementary budget were revealed.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said it was evident that the opposition was taken aback when he provided all the facts during the question and answer session.

"I guess they were really embarrassed as they had made numerous allegations against the Barisan Nasional state government on the supplementary budget.

"Left with no choice, I suppose the next best thing for them to do was create a ruckus so that their walkout could be justified," he said.

The BN state government had been accused by the opposition of recklessly spending its cash reserves and heading towards a financial disaster with a whopping RM104 million deficit budget.

Perak DAP chief and Sitiawan assemblyman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham said the request for additional funding proved the BN administration's inefficiency.

Zambry pointed out that the supplementary budget was derived from the state's higher revenue between January and July this year.

"As of July, the state's revenue was RM117.26 million and the state government decided to use RM104 million of this extra income for the benefit of the people and the state.

"The passing of the Supplementary Supply Enactment 2010 on Tuesday would also enable the state government to offset a RM24 million deficit incurred in the 2010 Budget approved in October last year.

"Hence, the RM80 million allocation would not increase the state's deficit from the present RM24 million to RM104 million. In fact, there'll be no deficit for 2010."

He said the additional funds would be used this year to enhance the state government's people-oriented programmes and development agenda.

Zambry also said part of the allocation would be used to overcome various problems faced by the people.

"Our emphasis will be to spend the money on programmes related to poverty eradication, infrastructure development and socio-economic enhancement of the urban and rural poor. For these purposes, the state government proposes a sum of RM30 million."

He said the money would be channelled to activities related to sports, community and religion, socio-economic assistance, natural disaster mitigation efforts, provision of clean water in rural areas, installation of lights in villages and Orang Asli areas, among others.

Apart from the RM30 million allocation, Zambry said RM50 million would be invested which could bring significant returns to the state.

This sum, he said, would be managed by the State Investment Committee (SIC), which Zambry chairs.

He said the SIC would distribute the money either to selected fund managers to invest on behalf of the state government or directly to the state government to be parked in financial instruments approved by the committee.

"We will make sure that the money is invested properly in viable investment instruments. We expect to obtain higher returns than the fixed deposit rates of 2.5 or 3 per cent per annum. We are considering several investment instruments including low-risk ones like debt-based depository sukuk.

"Ultimately, the SIC will make investment decisions based on the viability of the instruments." - New Straits Times