VIDEO l 1:43 mins

The first place to cut the fat when it comes to excessive spending is to cull redundant government agencies, where fat salaries for officers seem to be the norm, DAP's Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming says.

NONEThese agencies include the Green Foundation (Yayasan Hijau) and the Malaysian Global Innovation an Creativity Centre (Magic), announced in Budget 2014, which overlap with existing agencies such as the Agensi Inovasi Malaysia and Malaysian Green Tech Corporation.

Citing a written reply to Parliament, Ong said officers contracted to existing agencies get paid as high as RM69,000 a month, close to three times the salary of the highest paid civil servant - the chief secretary to the government - who is paid RM23,577 a month.

The reply, which he received on Oct 1, revealed the following salaries:

  • Agensi Inovasi Malaysia CEO:  RM69,000 a month;
  • Land Transport Commission CEO: RM40,000 a month, plus a yearly bonus and allowance of RM222,000; and
  • TalentCorp CEO: RM30,000 a month, plus a monthly car allowance of RM5,000

Ong said  the same trend is likely to persist in the newly set-up agencies, especially under the Prime Minister's Department.

“Not only CEOs... staff in these agencies, many of who are contract staff and not civil servants, are also paid higher than equivalent salaries,” he said.

For example, he said, the maximum monthly salaries for those at the Performance and Management Development (Pemandu) are as follows:

  • Director: RM49,000 a month:
  • Associate director: RM31,6000 a month; and
  • Senior manager: RM21,000 a month.

Ong said  this was despite these officers supposedly having equivalent ranking as civil servants in Grade 54 to JUSA A/B.

Other agencies under the PMD include the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (Irda), Unit Peneraju Agenda Bumiputera (Teraju) and the Malaysian Industry Government Group for High Technology (Might).

“This is the reason that the total expenditure for the PM’s Office is projected to rise from RM14.6 billion in 2013 to a projected RM16.5 billion in 2014, representing an increase of 13 percent.

This is compared with the overall budget that is projected to increase by only 1.5 percent from RM260 billion in 2013 to RM264 billion in 2014,” said Ong.

The sum is the highest ever allocation for the PMD, breaking its previous record of a RM15.62 billion budget in 2011.

According to the Federal Expenditure Estimate 2014, the Prime Minister’s Department hasan estimated budget of RM16.45 billion for next year, with RM5.86 billion in operational expenditure and RM10.58 billion in developmental expenditure.

“If the prime minister is serious about asking ordinary Malaysians to change their lifestyles to adapt to rising prices as subsidies are withdrawn and the GST is introduced, he should also walk and talk by reducing expenditure in his own department,” Ong added.