Government loses billions in uncollected debts spanning decades

Pasir Gudang Member of Parliament Hassan Karim has raised concerns about the government's inability to collect billions of ringgit in outstanding debts, highlighting a persistent challenge in public financial management. According to Karim, certain debts owed to the government have remained unsettled for as long as 40 years, pointing to systemic inefficiencies in debt recovery mechanisms. The lengthy timeframes suggest that recovery efforts have stalled or been deprioritised across multiple government departments and agencies. The accumulation of such long-standing arrears places additional pressure on the national budget, as funds that should have been recovered are instead lost to the government's balance sheet. Karim's remarks underscore broader questions about the effectiveness of the government's debt collection framework and the need for stronger enforcement protocols to recover outstanding payments from debtors, whether private entities or government-linked organisations.