BUDGET 2015 Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim has criticised the government's growing budget for the police Special Branch (SB), which among others conducts surveillance on the opposition instead of fighting crime.

According to the Federal Expenditure Estimate 2015 (FEE), Sim said, the budget for the SB swelled by 12 percent or RM47 million while the Criminal Investigation Department's budget only grew by 2.5 percent or RM13.1 million.

"The SB, which is often criticised as a political unit of the police that spies on members and supporters of the opposition, is given much more focus than the CID, which is the unit for combatting crime," he said in a statement today.

Sim ( right ) said as it stands, RM440.6 million will go for the security intelligence activities of the police, while RM546.4 million will be allocated to combatting crime.

This, he said, translated to RM53,000 for every Special Branch officer while those in the CID only receive a RM34,000 per capita budget.

"Even though the amount is not entirely for salary, it shows the government is providing 56 percent more in financial resources to Special Branch officers compared with the CID officers.

In terms of performance, Sim said the FEE revealed that the Special Branch produced a mind-blowing 368,900 intelligence reports for 2013, which included information on the opposition.

"In contrast, the CID only managed to solve 28,162 criminal cases of 147,062 investigation papers that were opened in 2013.

"In other words, only 19 percent of criminal cases were solved," Sim added.