If you can recall my blogpost on June 03, 2012 titled “Sinful K-Pop” (Link http://helpvictor.blogspot.com/2012/06/sinful-k-pop.html) – you will know about the One Million Youths Gathering celebrations last year that featured Korean pop stars. Of course, by now, you will have known from the Auditor-General’s Report 2012 that the Youth and Sports Ministry spent RM1.6 million to bring in the three South Korean pop groups ostensibly to draw in the crowds, in contrast to the falsehood that the cost was sponsored.
A day after Khairy made the admission, his predecessor insisted that the money did come from sponsors. Ahmad Shabery Cheek, in direct contradiction to Khairy's statement, claimed the ministry had received RM20 million from domestic and foreign corporate sponsors for the event. He said the money was banked into the National Sports Council's account by the sponsors, which the auditor-general's department had failed to take into account (The Malaysian Insider. October 03, 2013).
If that is not bad enough, hold onto your chair because when I tell you the cost of staging this mega-event – you are likely to want to faint. If I understand correctly, the total cost of the Putrajaya extravaganza totaled RM67.61 million. Even if what was claimed by Shabery that RM20 million was sponsored is really true – and which I doubt very much – this still means that RM47.61 million came from government coffers, i.e. Malaysian taxpayers!
Brave but foolish Shabery (left) even took the offensive and accused the auditor-general of having fluffed his figures – if this is so, then let Malaysians know what was the real cost of staging this event. Also, furnish us with an itemized breakdown of the expenditure. Tell us who were the sponsors and what were they actually sponsoring. Give us the whole picture – not pieces of a puzzle! Tell us the whole truth, please!
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