PKR treasurer William Leong has accused caretaker Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of using public funds to boost his own image.

This comes after Maybank Investment Bank Research revealed that the Prime Minister's Department (PMD) was the top advertisement spender on Media Prima and Astro .

NONE "In his effort to face the 13th general election, Najib spent RM36.1 million in public funds even before the general election campaigns began to form his own positive image," Leong said in a press statement today.

Leong also noted that Najib had appeared in a Chinese New Year advertisement in February, which had been aired over national television and the Internet, on top of appearing in newspapers.

"Najib's failure to use the people's money wisely - that is for the public interest and not personal gain - means he has failed as prime minister and finance minister," said Leong, who is also the incumbent Selayang MP.

According to the Maybank Investment Bank Research report, BN had splurged on an additional RM4.9 million as well.

The report read, "PMD was the top ad spender. It spent RM36.1 million on advertisements, comprising seven percent of February 2013's total gross advertisement expenditure (Adex).

The second largest ad spender was Unilever Malaysia, at a distant RM13 million. Curiously, the BN ruling coalition itself, had appeared on the top 20 advertisers list after having spent RM4.9 million on ads.

'Ads to sustain ahead of GE13'

"We expect ads spent by both the PMD and BN to sustain ahead of the GE13, which is now widely expected to be called in April 2013."

NONE Leong ( right ) claimed that the advertisement blitz was to whitewash BN's mismanagement of the government.

In contrast, he pointed out that Pakatan Rakyat had not been given a chance to appear in the mainstream media, in a bid by BN to skew the general election results in its favour.

The Information Ministry had last month offered opposition parties 10 minutes each to present their pre-recorded manifestos on Radio Television Malaysia (RTM), but was turned down.

Pakatan Rakyat had described the offer as insincere, pointing out that Najib had two whole hours to present BN's manifesto last Saturday.