At RM16.5bil, Najib oversees most expensive PMD yet

Despite Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's pledge to rein in the country's deficit, his own department's budget is ballooning to the highest level ever.

According to the Federal Expenditure Estimate 2014, the Prime Minister's Department's (PMD) estimated budget for next year stands at RM16.45 billion, with an operational expenditure of RM5.86 billion and developmental expenditure of RM10.58 billion.

The sum is the highest ever allocation for the PMD, breaking its previous record of a RM15.62 billion budget in 2011.

The PMD expenditure in previous years have been: RM6.91 billion (2008), RM10.19 billion (2009), RM11.88 billion (2010), RM 15.62 billion (2011), and RM13.721 billion (2012).

The department is exceeded by none except for the Defence Ministry, the Education Ministry and Health Ministry, all of which have massive infrastructure and assets to manage.

The 2014 Budget allocation means the PMD has, for the first time in three years, overtaken the Defence Ministry, for which the 2014 Budget allocation is RM16.1 billion.

The Education Ministry's budget for 2014 stands at RM54.6 billion while the Health Ministry comes in second at RM22.16 billion.

Among the items that take up a large part of the PMD's budget are the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (RM779 million), Implementation Coordination Unit (RM631 million) and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (RM367 million).

When tabling Budget 2014 yesterday, Najib said the country aims to continue reducing its deficit from four percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) this year to 3.5 percent of the GDP next year.