Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's government has been spending the most to hire special advisers since Najib Abdul Razak's era.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Special Functions) Abd Latiff Ahmad said at present, Ismail Sabri's government has hired a total of five special advisers, costing RM136,136 a month.
Latiff said this according to a parliamentary reply to PKR's Alor Setar MP Chan Ming Kai, who asked for a list of all special advisers hired by the current and past governments.
The current special advisers are Abdul Hadi Awang (special envoy to the Middle East), Tiong King Sing (special envoy to China), Richard Riot (special envoy to Japan, Korea and Taiwan), S Vigneswaran (special envoy to India and South Asia) and Azalina Othman Said (special advisor on law and human right).
They were hired between August and October and are each paid RM27,227.20 a month.
If they serve their full two-year tenure, they are expected to cost taxpayers a total of RM3.267 million.
The cost of RM136,136 a month is higher than the government under Ismail Sabri's predecessor, Muhyiddin Yassin.
For the most part, Muhyiddin had a total of four advisers with a salary of RM27,227.20 a month, except Dr Jemilah Mahmood (special adviser on public health), who was given a salary of RM18,204.67.
This came to a total of RM99,886.27 a month.
Towards the end of Muhyiddin's tenure, the Bersatu president also appointed his party deputy Ahmad Faizal Azumu as a special adviser with a salary of RM27,227.20, which would have brought the total cost to RM127,113.47.
However, Faizal only served in the position for 22 days following the collapse of Muhyiddin's government in August.
When Dr Mahathir Mohamad served as the prime minister of the Pakatan Harapan government, he had a total of four advisers.
They were Daim Zainuddin, who did not take a salary; Abdul Kadir Jasin, who received RM9,038 a month; Tan Kok Wai, who was paid RM18,204.67 a month; and Muhammed Abdul Khalid, who was given RM19,610.33 a month.
This came to a total of RM46.853 a month.
The record-holder is Najib Abdul Razak, who served as the sixth prime minister from 2009 to 2018.
He had a total of 16 advisers. The large numbers were in part due to his long tenure of nine years.
They served at different periods but at the peak in 2018, Najib had a total of 10 active special advisers who were receiving salaries costing RM244,791.65 a month.
There were also three advisers who did not take a salary.
Prior to that, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government which served from 2003 to 2009, only had a single special adviser, with a monthly salary of RM17,820.
When Mahathir was the fourth prime minister, he only had one special adviser at any one time, also with a salary of RM17,820.
One was hired between 1982 to 1989, while another was hired between 2001 and 2003.
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