No prior notice: Takiyuddin speaking at the Parliament lobby against a motion to allow the report to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat as other Opposition members of parliament look on.
KUALA LUMPUR: There is no necessity for the Opposition bloc to be present at the evening session of the Dewan Rakyat proceeding for the unprecedented debate session on the Auditor-General’s Report 2021 Series 2 yesterday.
Beluran MP Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the motion to debate the Auditor-General’s Report 2021 Series 2 by the government was redundant.
“We are not boycotting the session, it is a matter of principle. It is because the motion is against Article 107 of the Federal Constitution.
“Parliament has failed to manage the Order Paper and they even completed the reading of the Bills last week in a hurry.
“And today, they (government) presented this motion to be debated, as to why we are not supporting the reading of the motion because there is an element of redundancy,” the Bersatu vice-president told The Star yesterday.
Earlier, chaos erupted in the Dewan Rakyat following the move by Perikatan Nasional MPs to object to the motion to debate the audit report.
The evening session of the Lower House saw the seats in the Opposition bloc were empty as the august House proceeded to debate the audit report that highlighted irregularities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan (PN-Kota Baru) told the Dewan Rakyat that the move to debate the report had never been done before and the report was previously only laid on MPs’ tables.
He said there was no prior notice given to the Opposition on the Bills that would be tabled and they only found out about the order of business through the Order Paper.
The Opposition also claimed that they did not even know which minister in the prime minister’s department had filed the motion to debate the audit report.
Citing the Federal Constitution, Takiyuddin, who is the Opposition chief whip, said the Auditor-General had to present the annual audit report to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong before it was “laid before” the Dewan Rakyat.
He said the House must adhere to the provisions of the law that were in place.
“If there are no clear provisions, only then the Speaker can do this, but that, too, must be in line with parliamentary conventions,” he said at the Parliament lobby.
He said the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) role was akin to the “court of Parliament”.
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul had approved for the audit report to be debated in Parliament.
