The government yesterday unveiled plans to pump more than RM600 million to arrest the rise in crime, with almost half of that amount, or RM272 million, directed at remedying public perception of the problem.

The exact amount of RM272,541,900 is listed under the Home Ministry's budget as a one-off payment to "improve safety perception index" under the National Key Results Area (NKRA) on combating crime, according to the Federal Expenditure Estimate (FEE) 2013.

NONE This was in contrast to four other one-off payments under this NKRA - RM20.4 million to reduce overall index crime, RM26.4 million to reduce street crime, RM2.9 million to increase public satisfaction on police performance and a mere RM45,000 to increase the charge rate of investigation papers opened.

Nonetheless, the government allocated a massive RM158.2 million to boost the police force with new positions, which is labeled as ‘new policy' under the Home Ministry's budget.

Further to this, another RM125.3 million was allocated for ‘NKRA - Reducing Crime Rate', which was listed under the ‘projects category'.

The expenditure estimate did not stipulate how this money would be spent but funding for agencies such as the Immigration Department and Prison Department under the ‘project category' pertains to allocation for equipments such as computers and vehicles.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak in his budget speech yesterday had given a glimpse of what the projects will be, including providing 1,000 motorcycles to establish a motorcycle patrolling unit for housing areas and 496 CCTV in 25 local authorities to curb crime in urban areas.

'Police budget slightly down'

While crime-busting received a boost through special NKRA allocations, the police's regular budget for next year saw a slight dip of four percent to RM6.51 billion from this year's RM6.77 billion.

In its breakdown, the police's budget for crime investigation remains largely unchanged at RM524.3 million - an increase of three percent.

Security intelligence receives an increase of 1.8 percent to RM389.1 million and internal security and public order gets a 6.5 percent hike to RM1.79 billion but a deep 59.5 percent cut was seen for logistics, bringing it down to RM832 million from RM1.4 billion this year.

police crime roadblock Other items include RM2.64 billion for management, RM241.9 million for drug prevention and RM92.3 million for commercial crimes investigation.

When contacted, analyst and Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong agreed that the police's budget remained largely the same but criticised the government for not re-prioritising the force's resources despite flak from the public over crime fears.

"The security intelligence budget is about 70 percent of the criminal investigation department (CID) budget, if you transfer the money you can almost double their allocation - but of course you'll also have to transfer special branch (intelligence) personnel to investigation.

"The ideal situation is for an investigating officer to handle five cases a month, but now they are handling 20 cases a month. How can they be effective? They are being overwhelmed."

'Still hunting for communists'

Liew pointed out despite the sizeable budget for security intelligence, among its activities was to address communist threats.

"This is a stupid thing - the communist threat. The last communist signed their peace treaty in 1989 and if a child was born then they would be 23 years now," he said.

NONE According to the FEE document, the security intelligence conducts covert and overt intelligence activities on communist threats, subversive and extremist elements and also spying on internal and external threats.

The MP also criticised the special NKRA allocations for crime-busting with substantial sums for neighbourhood patrols, stressing that ultimately, it was the police's duty to ensure security.

"This is like saying the police can't help you, so here is for you to go look for your own solution," he said.

Aside from this, the Home Ministry's budget also listed two more one-off payments specifically for the upcoming general election - RM100 million for Rela personnel and RM150 million for police duties during the polls.

Budget 2013: Facts and figures in graphics