Government data reveals that agencies and projects under Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Idris Jala’s ( below ) hand will cost the rakyat RM12.6 billion over the next two years.

idris jala interview 2 Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong said that based on the latest operating and development expenditure documents released last Friday, the sum was akin to that required to run a full government ministry.

In a statement today Liew said that the total cost of the “new ministry” is approximately RM6.19 billion for 2011 and RM6.4 billion for 2012, as stipulated in the Federal Estimated Budget 2011, a document that MPs have received that is regarded as the “actual budget”.

Of this amount, RM11.86 billion is allocated for National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) projects for 2011 and 2012 under the development budget, while another RM729.4 million for 2011 comes under the operating budget.

Liew’s contention is that instead of helping the government embark on an austerity drive, the various agencies and departments under Idris’ control are turning out to be big spenders themselves.

NONE He believes that most of these funds will end up in the pockets of consultants that include international firms.

Liew ( right ) explained that officially in the Federal Estimated Budget 2011, the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) that Idris heads as chief executive officer has only been allocated RM20.67 million for 2011.

He however pointed out that another item listed elsewhere in the same document states that RM897,800 for “new policy” is being allocated to Pemandu, along with a “one-off payment” of RM18.43 million.

The document did not provide any details for these additional allocations.

Money for consultants, not rakyat

Additionally, Liew remarked that the National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) was a “group of costly alphabets” with the labs for the areas 1Malaysia, education and crime fighting receiving allocations of RM38.42 million, RM22 million and RM9.1 million respectively.

“In addition, the delivery task force of NKRA for low income households costs RM265 million.

“If a cash grant of RM1,000 is distributed (out of that allocation), 265,000 low income families would have been aided.

“Clearly, it is a move that is set to benefit the consultants,” said Liew.

NONE Other than Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s 1Malaysia initiative, the NKRA covers six areas that the government aims to improve on public service delivery.

Under the NKRA, Pemandu established six labs to study ways to address crime, graft, education, low-income household welfare, public transportation and rural and urban infrastructure.

Even costlier than the NKRA is the NKEA, that has been allocated RM355.9 million for operating costs while under the development budget, NKEA has been allocated a total of RM11.86 billion for 2010-2011.

Liew estimated that for 2011, NKEA’s development budget allocation will stand at RM5.4 billion, that is more than 10 percent of the entire development budget for 2011.

“So what do all these numbers mean? All I can say is that the “new ministry” is indeed a very costly affair. It’s time for the KPI minister (Idris) to disclose his own KPI score card to the people of Malaysia,” concluded Liew.

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