LETTER: Finding new sources of revenue has become more challenging for governments during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In our case, there is one source that could readily be mobilised and that is the unclaimed monies under the care of the Registrar of Unclaimed Monies, Accountant General's Department (AGD).
The Accountant General is also the Registrar of Unclaimed Monies. And the Electronic Government Unclaimed Monies Information System (eGUMIS) was activated in 2018 to enable the public to check for any unclaimed monies that include salaries, bonuses, commissions and other payments to employees like dividends and profits declared for distributions; insurance claims; matured fixed deposits and credit balance from dormant savings.
In 2019, there were an estimated RM9 billion of unclaimed monies. As a comparison, the amount approximates the direct injection of the Penjana Short-Term Economic Recovery Plan at RM10 billion. It also represents a fifth of the overall cumulative injection at RM45 billion.
Even the National Contingencies Fund, which under Article 11(3) of the Financial Procedure Act 1957 empowers the finance minister to make spending advances doesn't match up.
Budget 2020 allocated only RM2 billion to the National Contingencies Fund. To unlock this potential source of revenue, the Unclaimed Monies Act 1965 needs to be amended and substituted by a new bill. This is to legally enable the accountant-general-cum-Registrar of Unclaimed Monies to transfer the outstanding amount to the government coffers.In addition, the lack of expiry date is also a legal obstacle that needs to be removed to facilitate the transfer.
Now, it will certainly be objected that this act of expropriation could well be unconstitutional as a breach of one's human rights and a form of "theft". As it is, the monies to be transferred remains unclaimed and idle.
Under the Unclaimed Monies Act 1965, it is under the care of the government in the person of the Registrar of Unclaimed Monies, which is held in trust with the government, and not some private entity.
As such, the government is legally entitled on the basis of common law principles to use or dispose of the unclaimed monies in any way that it sees fit so long as it's not contrary to the constitution, public policy or morality.
This is further justified by the amendment process, which should not be performed in the form of a ministerial order, which is law-making by the executive under the parent act — the Unclaimed Monies Act 1965.
The amendment embodied in a new bill would be debated in Parliament and subject to parliamentary approval. Preferably, the bill should refer to the forthcoming Covid-19 (Temporary Measures) Bill as the umbrella legislation to provide additional legal backup.
This also means that the Unclaimed Monies Act will be reset once the amount outstanding is exhausted. And the situation therefore will revert to normalcy under the provisions of the Unclaimed Monies Act. Desperate or extraordinary times call for desperate or extraordinary measures. Recall that even the previous Pakatan Harapan administration resorted to the unconventional method of tapping into donations as a source of revenue.
This was set against the backdrop of a fast ballooning national debt of RM885.9 billion in 2018. Therefore, proposing for unclaimed monies to be diverted by the government for social purposes as a "stop-gap" or emergency measure on a temporary basis should be considered.
JASON LOH SEONG WEI
Head of Social, Law and Human Rights, EMIR Research
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times