Masidi Calls Out Shafie S Rm1bil Debt Settlement Boast

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The Sabah finance minister says Shafie Apdal was claiming credit for the financial planning done by the pre-2018 state administration.
Sabah finance minister Masidi Manjun said by the time the Warisan administration took office in 2018, most of the funds needed for repayment had already been secured. (Bernama pic)PETALING JAYA: Sabah finance minister Masidi Manjun has hit out at Warisan president Shafie Apdal for claiming that his administration had settled a RM1 billion debt left by the previous government in 2019
Masidi said Shafie’s claim was aimed at showing that his administration was good at managing government finances, “but the facts speak for themselves”.
Masidi, who is also the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah secretary-general, said the federal bond in question was issued in December 2014 during the Barisan Nasional-led state administration.
He said one of the conditions imposed by the central bank for the issuance of the bond was that the state government must set up a dedicated sinking fund to ensure full repayment of the debt upon maturity.
“This was a safeguard to prevent the repayment from becoming a huge financial burden on the state’s finances,” he said in a statement.
Masidi said that under the terms of the bond, the state government needed to place RM200 million into the sinking fund each year for five years, until 2019.
By the time the Warisan administration took office in 2018, he said, most of the funds needed for repayment had already been secured.
He said that in the following year, RM1 billion was already in the sinking fund, which allowed the state government to make a one-off bullet payment being full settlement of the bond debt.
“Therefore, it is not accurate to suggest that this repayment was the result of any special action by the Warisan government.
“The payment was the outcome of prudent financial planning put in place by the previous administration years before the bond matured,” he said.
Yesterday, Shafie defended his promise to write off outstanding student loans for Sabahans if Warisan forms the government after the upcoming state election.
Responding to a youth NGO’s claim that the pledge was mere rhetoric, the former Sabah chief minister said his promise was not a political gimmick and that it was financially doable.
“In 2019, I paid RM1 billion of debts left by BN,” he was quoted as saying.
“If I can pay BN’s debts, why can’t we pay the debts of our students?” - FMT

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