KUALA LUMPUR (May 23): The Barisan Nasional government did not hide RM300 billion in debts or falsify figures, said former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in a Facebook posting today. 

Najib said “not even during Tun Mahathir's previous reign” did the government ever include its contingent obligations as part of the official measurement of government debt.  

“I am glad that the Finance Minister has come clean in his statement yesterday that the official federal government debt remains at RM686.8 billion (50.8% of GDP) — not 65% or RM1 trillion as claimed. 

“The previous government had always complied with international public debt reporting guidelines, as defined by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Therefore, the figure of 50.8% is a universally-accepted measurement,” he said.

Earlier this week, the new Pakatan Harapan federal government had highlighted the importance of including off-balance sheet items, such as contingent obligations and public-private partnerships (PPP) as part of the consolidated government debt. 

The difference in the method of calculation prompted Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to announce government debt has reached RM1.09 trillion.

Najib rebutted this, saying figures relating to the contingent obligations are published in Treasury reports, Bank Negara Malaysia reports, the Accountant General reports, and the Auditor General reports every year “without fail”. 

Describing Guan Eng’s announcement as “unnecessary”, Najib said: “The spade had always been called a spade as per universally accepted guidelines. 

“The government had given these guarantees to certain entities it owns to help lower their financing cost. These are typically long-term obligations, backed with revenue-generating assets,” he added. 

As for PPP or private finance initiative (PFI) leases — typically for social infrastructure — Najib termed them as “operating expenses” instead of debt.

“Market analysts, economists and investors are all well aware of these numbers, which are manageable and can be serviced, a fact confidently admitted, by the Minister of Finance himself,” he said.  

He went on to blame Malaysia’s stock market decline this week on the debacle. “I hope and pray that PH government ministers will be more careful in making assertions in future,” he added.