KUALA LUMPUR– Dewan Rakyat speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof today acknowledged that his 31-year-old son worked for Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.However, this did not present a conflict of interest during his decision-making in reference to a motion by Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob that Lim be referred to the Privileges Committee for allegedly misleading the House.
The Speaker explained that his son’s employment was not a matter that he had been secretive about, adding that he (Mohamad Ariff’s son) was 31-years-old and was “free to work wherever and under whomever”.
The speaker added “…whether there is a conflict of interest, I believe not”, and went on to say that owing to the fact that he used to be a judge, if even a small matter concerning his independence as Speaker had arisen, he would have withdrawn himself.
Ismail Sabri had earlier asked for confirmation on whether it was true that Mohamad Ariff’s son worked as Lim’s press secretary, as per reports in social media.
Yesterday, Mohamad Ariff had decided that there was no provocation in Lim’s claims made during the Parliamentary session in August last year that money comprising refunds of Goods and Services Tax had been robbed by the previous government, while on Monday, the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) investigation findings presented in Parliament, had found that RM19.4 billion in funds which were supposed to have been credited into the GST refund consolidated fund (Kumpulan Wang Pembayaran Balik GST), had actually been used for management and development expenditure.
— BERNAMA
