Chin Tong tells Najib to come clean on new 'Idris Jala ministry'

DAP MP for Bukit Bendera Liew Chin Tong

KUALA LUMPUR (Harakahdaily) - Hidden in the just announced budget is a fat allocation by prime minister Najib Razak to set up yet another ministry.

DAP's Bukit Bendera member of parliament Liew Chin Tong said a whooping RM 12.59 billion has been set aside for the new ministry which will be under Idris Jala, the minister in the Prime Minister's Department who is also the CEO of the government's Performance Management and Delivery Unit (PEMANDU).


Unable to get a name, Liew took the liberty of calling it ‘Kementerian Idris Jala’ or KIJA, and revealed that the total cost for this unannounced ministry would be around RM 6.19 billion for 2011 with an additional RM6.4 billion for 2012.

“Of the amount, RM11.86 billion are allocated for National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) projects over a two-year period of 2011-2012 under development budget while another RM729.4 million for 2011 comes under operating budget, which has mostly been channelled to international consulting firms,” said Liew.

Idris and his outfits

Explaining further, Liew said it was Idris Jala (left), who currently shares the same portfolio as former Penang chief minister Koh Tsu Koon in Pemandu, who has been "calling the shots" with the help of several consulting firms which responsible for the preparation of the many economic acronyms recently announced, namely the Government Transformation Plan (GTP), the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for ministers, ministries and Federal agencies.

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He said the ETP proposed by "Idris and his outfits" had usurped the role of the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC), which has the task of preparing the New Economic Model but which failed in curbing the rising government expenditure.

Citing an example, Liew said the RM214 billion total budget for 2011 was the highest ever and the total allocation of RM15.86 billion for the Prime Minister's Department alone was another record-setter.

"KIJA or Idris’s various outfits are themselves now big spenders, as shown in Budget 2011,” he added.

Saying that 'KIJA' was "a very costly affair", Liew said the time had come for Idris to disclose his own KPI score card to Malaysians.

Among others, Liew lists details of the allocation for Pemandu as follows:

Item 310000, Page 134: RM20.67 million was allocated for Pemandu.

Item 320800, Page 135: RM897,800 under ‘Dasar Baru’ or new policy.

Item 331800, Page 136: RM18.43 million, a one-off payment to Pemandu.

Item 332000, Page 136: RM136.87 million, Liew suspects that substantial amount under the emolument for contractual workers from the PM's Department would be utilised by KIJA.

Item 331300, 331100, 331200, Page 136: National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) NKRA for crime fighting was allocated RM9.1 million, education, RM22 million, and 1Malaysia, RM38.42 million.

Item 332200, page 135: RM265 million for the delivery task force of NKRA for Low Income Household. However, Liew charges that if the move is to benefit the consultant as if only cash grant of RM1000 is distributed, 265,000 low income families would have been aided.

Item 332100, page 136: RM355.9 million for National Key Economic Areas (NKEA).

Item 94000, page 139: Under the development budget, NKEA will be allocated a total of RM11.86 billion in 2011-2012),in which the estimate for 2011 is RM5.4 billion – more than 10 percent of the entire development budget for 2011.