PAC to meet Bank Negara officials
The Star 16/08/2005

JOHOR BARU: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will meet officials from Bank Negara and the Housing and Local Government Ministry to find out problems faced by the banking sector.

PAC chairman Datuk Shahrir Samad said the committee wanted to find out why the concept of “build first and pay later” could not be implemented for the housing sector.

“We do not understand why this concept cannot be implemented,” he said, adding that the idea was first mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Shahrir said the meeting would be held at the end of this month.

He said this after attending a band competition participated by nine southern zone drug rehabilitation centres here yesterday.

Shahrir said Barisan backbenchers would visit Sabak Bernam on Aug 24 to find out how the community participated in programmes to combat the drug menace.

“We cannot merely rely on the government to fight the drug menace alone as the situation is getting worse with the figures going up each year,” he said, adding that concerted efforts from the grass roots, including mosque and village heads, were equally important.

He added that drug rehabilitation centres were only able to accept about 8,000 inmates while there were some 300,000 registered addicts nationwide.