PETALING JAYA: Lim Guan Eng has urged former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to explain the drastic drop in the Consolidated Revenue Account, adding that the monthly financial statements of the Government was prepared by the Accountant General Department.

In a statement on Sunday (Sept 23), the Finance Minister asked Najib to explain the drastic drop of RM11.41bil or 96% in the Consolidated Revenue Account over a four month period from Dec 31, 2017 to April 30 which had left the new Pakatan Harapan Government with only RM450mil.

"Imagine having RM450mil to spend when our emoluments (salaries) and pension payments alone amounted to more than RM8bil a month? Or is Najib still at a loss to differentiate or understand what constitutes a Consolidated Revenue Account despite being Finance Minister for 10 years?" he asked.

Lim said Najib had wrongly assumed that the total amount in the Consolidated Fund was available for use, as legally, the Government could only use the Consolidated Revenue Account for its operating expenditures.

He said the Consolidated Revenue Account greatly shrunk due to "excessive spending" for the period of four months from January 2018 to April 2018.

"Clearly this was 'general election spending' to try to help Barisan win the 14th general election," he said.

Lim also criticised Najib for questioning the veracity of the April unaudited financial statements, adding that the former premier had even blamed him indirectly for manipulating the figures.

"As the former Finance Minister, Najib should know very well that the monthly financial statements of the Federal Government are independently prepared by the Accountant General Department.

"He should not question the credibility of the monthly financial statements," Lim said.

Lim added that Najib had also failed to realised that the new Finance Minister had not been sworn in yet when the unaudited monthly financial statements for April 30 was prepared.

Lim urged Najib to not "feign ignorance" of the distressed state of the Government's fiscal position by insisting that Barisan Nasional had left tens of billions of ringgit to the Pakatan Government when the amount was in fact only RM450mil.

Lim also claimed that Najib seemed to have difficulty in distinguishing the difference between the Consolidated Revenue Account and Consolidated Fund by stating that as of Dec 31, 2017, the Federal Government had RM18.06bil to spend and not RM11.86bil as revealed by him.