The government spent a whopping RM63.9 million to organise open days and to hire consultants to implement the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) initiatives.

In written replies to two questions, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Koh Tsu Koon said the expenditure for both the "leviathan" government projects was justified as the cost was much less than the budget allocated and "value for money".

In his first question sent in on April 5, Bukit Bendera DAP MP Liew Chin Tong asked the government to state the cost of publicity, including the launching, road shows and advertisements for the GTP and ETP projects.

NONE For the GTP, Koh said, the total cost of the open day held over three days in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, including the launch and exhibition as well as the subsidy rationalisation exhibition, came to RM 5.4 million.

"For communications and publicity, RM9.7 million (was spent), so in total it was RM15.1million," he said.

He explained that the administration had allocated RM5.44 billion for GTP efforts last year and the abovementioned expenditure was less than 0.28 percent of the allocation.

"It is also far less than the cost of communications spent by the private sector. It should be noted that six key result areas under the NKRA for 2010 achieved 93 percent in performance and by spending RM4.31 billion or only 80 percent of the budget," Koh said.

On the other hand, Putrajaya spent RM12.5million on its ETP initiative - RM5.7million for the launch and open day that was on for three days, as well as RM6.8 million for communications.

Koh said the price paid for the 60 projects under the 46 entry point projects (EPP) that were launched during the open day was value for money as it has the potential "generate investments of RM94.4 billion and a gross national income of RM137.2 billion, as well as 224,358 job opportunities".

Comparatively, the cost of publicity and communications was less than 0.013 percent of the total investment.

Pemandu paid consultants RM26 million

Meanwhile, in another written reply, Koh said the government paid RM36.3 million to consultants for conducting various laboratories.

sibu forum penang 260510 liew chin tong This was in response to Liew's ( left ) question on the number of contractual staff under the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) as well as the payments to the consultants hired.

Koh said that the government had appointed seven consultancy firms to execute the labs and prepare reports as well as to prepare material for showcasing purposes and press kits.

The government expenses on the consultants were "justified" as the people's woes were solved and economic growth was also generated.

The role of the consultants is to "challenge and address" the current situation and to resolve problems effectively.

Pemandu, which is spearheaded by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala, is tasked with overseeing the implementation of the ETP and GTP initiatives and to assess their progress.

"The expenditure for consultants for eight the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) labs from September to October 2009 cost RM6.3 million, (and) it was managed wholly by the consultants.

"For 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) labs from May to June 2010, RM16 million (was spent) and for 12 other labs from January to November 2010, (it cost) RM14 million, half of which the Pemandu officers had conducted on their own.

"The six SRL (Strategic Reform Initiatives) that were organised from February to April 2011 were completely managed by Pemandu officers, without the involvement of consultants," Koh said.

He explained that Pemandu's capabilities have improved since December 2009 and that their officers have the capacity to manage on their own.