RM450,000 not missing: Ministry

Kota Kinabalu: The State Tourism, Culture and Environment Ministry has denied that funds amounting to RM450,000 from the public under the Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) campaign had gone missing.Its Permanent Secretary Ginun Yangus said the preliminary Environment Action Centre (EAC) audit report revealed no such detail.

Ginun's statement came amid allegations from Sabah Environment Protection Association (Sepa) that the money had gone missing over the course of the campaign since 2011.

He said the proceeds of the BYOB monies were kept under Sepa's account (Sepa Special Project Account) together with other financial assistance contributed by the Ministry, public and private sectors.

"The fund is jointly managed by EAC and Sepa as a legal registered owner of the account.

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"While Sepa alleged the RM450,000 missing from the BYOB plastic bag campaign, the Ministry is not aware of any such missing funds as there was no official report from the EAC, which was closely supervised by Sepa before it was temporarily suspended this year," he said.

"We are surprised at Sepa's incessant insinuating of the alleged missing fund when they have already lodged a police report to investigate the allegation. They should wait for the police to complete their investigation," he added.

Ginun also brushed aside claims that the Ministry had terminated several of the newly-appointed staff as form of attack against the environmental group for quizzing the Ministry over the alleged missing fund.

According to him, there was no budget to pay the salaries of the new staff based on the salary package, which had been decided by Sepa itself.

On top of this, "Sepa did issue the termination letters to them later," he added.

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Towards this end, he said the government via EAC reserves the right to choose any non-governmental organisation/s as partners in environmental programmes. Hence, it was not bound to work with Sepa.

"The government has decided to work with new partners. Sepa should not be complaining as it does not need the government or the EAC to operate and function on its own," he said.

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