Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam asks if the government wants to see the commission begging or protesting in the streets after slashing its budget by 50%. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, December 9, 2015.Despite advice from a minister to use its savings to cope with a nearly 50% cut in government funding, the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) might not have enough money to cover its operations for next year, its chairman says.
Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam said even if it combined the fixed deposits and grants, the commission might only be able to sustain operations until the third quarter of 2016.
“We have to dip into the grants, plus what the government will give.
“According to our calculations, by middle of next year or at most, by the third quarter of next year, we will run out of funds.
“Then maybe at that time we have to go around with a begging bowl, protest in the street, march to Parliament or otherwise close shop. Embarrassing!” he told The Malaysian Insider when asked to respond to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low.
Low on Monday after an event to mark Human Rights Day 2015 said Suhakam has fixed deposits of between RM4 million and RM4.5 million.
Given government budget cuts next year, Low said 2016 would be the best time for Suhakam, as well as other government agencies facing cuts, to use their fixed deposits.
Under Budget 2016, Suhakam’s allocation has been cut by almost 50% from RM10.97 million in 2015 to RM5.5 million next year.
“The government sometimes doesn’t give the full budget, it keeps some and we adjust our cut accordingly,” Hasmy said.
He said the RM4.5 million were accumulated through years of saving.
“If you are a government department, the government will take back the money that you don’t spend… but because we are not a government department, what we save we keep.
“Suhakam has been in existence for 15 years that’s why we have RM4.5 million,” he said of the commission that was established by Parliament under the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999.
Hasmy said the commission could spend prudently on certain programmes by holding them at their office but other awareness programmes required them to go to the field.
“We have more than 80 employees and we have rental premises.
“Of course, we can do some savings, like instead of organising (programmes) in hotels, we could do it in Suhakam’s building… it can be done to certain amount.
“But roadshows or raise awareness, we have to go out, we have to use the media.” – December 9, 2015.
Comments
Please refrain from nicknames or comments of a racist, sexist, personal, vulgar or derogatory nature, or you may risk being blocked from commenting in our website. We encourage commenters to use their real names as their username. As comments are moderated, they may not appear immediately or even on the same day you posted them. We also reserve the right to delete off-topic comments