'Bulk of crime-fighting funds not for publicity'
The bulk of the crime reduction budget under the government transformation programme was not spent on "publicity" as claimed by PKR, says the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu).
The bulk of the crime reduction budget under the government transformation programme was not spent on "publicity" as claimed by PKR, says the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu).
According to the crime reduction national key results area (NKRA) director Eugene Teh, only 0.75 percent of the budget or RM1.8 million was spent on awareness campaigns.
Speaking to the media today, Teh said the figure quoted by PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail on Tuesday included the budget for deployment of more police personnel and other agencies, such as Rela, on the streets and other efforts under the 'omnipresence programme'.
He said this was why the budget for reduction of fear of crime came up to RM170 million or 71 percent of the budget.
“Sometimes when (press) statements are released, it's good to do a sanity check. Say we spent RM170 on publicity, then police will be like Coca-Cola, on billboards, doing all sorts of shows.
“Celcom spent much less than that for their entire (publicity) campaign. Do you see this from the police?” he asked.
He added that as party president, Wan Azizah should be more careful and check with Pemandu as these details are publicly available.
“I’m okay if my mother tells me this after she came back from the market. But she is the president of a party, why say things like that without clarifying with us?” he asked.
He said that in fact, the RM1.8 million allocated for publicity was spent on awareness programmes like school visits.
Referring to the Home Ministry budget on which Wan Azizah had based her statement, he said a smaller sum was used for reducing street crime, overall crime index as “police are already spending money on these”.
The amount spent by the NKRA programme on these matters is for specific operations which “require a lot less people”.
‘Lodge complaint against police who refuse reports’
He said the RM170 million also include spending on CCTV, street lights, barriers and other infrastructure measures under the safer city programme.
Moving forward, he said, the NKRA will roll out similar infrastructure measures in places perceived have higher incidences of crime like San Peng in Kuala Lumpur.
The “dark spot clean-up” programme will also include making sure that abandoned buildings are boarded up to stop potential thieves like drug addicts from seeking shelter in those areas.
Asked if the drop in crime index is because victims are no longer lodging reports on crime, following poor confidence in police, he said the matter is taken seriously by the police.
He said that a new inspector-general of police standing order was made recently to prohibit personnel from discouraging people from lodging reports.
“Those found to be refusing any reporting will have stern disciplinary action taken against them,” he said, noting that there have been officers who have faced censure due to this.
Those who have been turned away by police should make a complaint to the enforcement agency integrity commission (EAIC), lodge a complaint at Bukit Aman or contact Pemandu at feedback.gtp@pemandu.com.my .
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