Abolishing gov't agencies a welcome move to reduce expenses

ADUN SPEAKS | Since the dawn of a new era in Malaysia, every morning is greeted with immense attention and excitement. After 61 years in darkness, Malaysians finally have a ray of light and hope in their new government.

It is the first meeting of the cabinet. 13 ministers were sworn in a few days before. A nation waits for the first press conference by the prime minister. The first order of business is simple: Government expenses have to be reduced.  

It was a shrewd but logical thing to do. Aside from all economic policies that Pakatan Harapan have promised to introduce, this move is the most important and the most fundamental. We must reduce unnecessary spending and allocate the money for more pressing needs.

It is worth noting that almost all cuts announced by the prime minister involved the Prime Minister’s Department.

The Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) will be abolished, with its duties taken over by the Transport Ministry.

The National Professors Council (NPC), Special Affairs Department (Jasa), the Federal Village Development and Safety Committees (JKKKP),  and Pemandu (Performance Management and Delivery Unit) will be disbanded and discontinued. Most of these were previously under the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD).

The 2018 Budget tabled by the former finance minister, Najib Abdul Razak saw a shocking 83.59 percent of the total expenditure go to operational costs.

From this huge percentage, RM 17.43 billion, which amounted to 6.2 percent of the total allocation for 2018 Budget was allocated solely to the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD).

 

In Selangor under the administration of Mohamed Azmin Ali, the state government has always made it a point to increase the development allocation and maintain the level of administrative expenditures.

For example, Azmin announced that development expenditure would comprise 53.2 percent of the 2018 budget. This is vital to boost the economy and generate income for the state’s coffers. This should be the key reference for all future federal budgets where allocations for development should be the main priority.

The huge amount held under the PMD left many to worry and wonder about its need to have a bigger sum of money than other more important ministries.

Besides, there was little accountability and transparency as to how the money would be spent as it was put under the powers of prime minister, who, under the previous administration, was also the finance minister.

Take Jasa, for instance. The 2018 budget allocated RM30 million to Jasa, up from RM22.9 million in 2017.

Many were left in disbelief when they found out that the Jasa director-general was paid more than RM20,000 in wages, whereas the communications and multimedia minister received just over RM14,000.

Jasa’s contribution to nation building and economy have hardly been found. They were used as propaganda arms of BN, which is absolutely wrong as their salaries were paid for using taxpayers' money.

It is not exactly rocket science to realise why the first order of business for the new government is to disband all these agencies. Malaysia would be well-off with the extra allocation from these cuts for development purposes.

Many argued that while the Prime Minister’s Department’s allocation increased, health, education and other vital allocations were cut.

After all, just like what Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said, the pressing need facing this new government is to save the nation’s coffers and not to seek revenge. It will not be long until Malaysia returns to greatness both domestically and internationally.

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AMIRUDIN SHARI is Selangor state executive councillor. - Mkini