VIDEO l 7:00 mins

PARLIAMENT Despite raking up a RM 2.2 million electricity bill in a year, the spending for the Prime Minister’s official Seri Perdana complex is actually “frugal” and “among the lowest in the world”, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim claimed today.

NONE “I believe our spending for the complex is among the lowest because of the frugal spending system we have in place there,” Shahidan ( right ) told the Dewan Rakyat while wrapping up debates on Budget 2014.

However, he admitted that he has not made “specific comparisons” with expenditures on the official residences of the top leaders of other countries, and that for such a comparison, he needed to be “given time”.

“This is based on my observation. If you want specific comparisons, you need to give me time,” he said when asked by Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Kluang) on the expenditure at Seri Perdana compared with the White House in United States and also the Downing Street office of the British prime minister.

NONE Liew also argued that while the likes of the White House, which by acreage is actually smaller than the Seri Perdana complex, doubles up as the United States president's office, unlike in Malaysia, where the Prime Minister's office is a separate building in Putrajaya.

However, Shahidan justified having a huge residential complex on top of the office, saying that the office is not equipped with the necessary facilities to host guests and also to host dinners for diplomatic guests.

"All these facilities are in the Seri Perdana complex," he said.