Police to probe RM700mil spent on govt publicity since 2020

 

The Dewan Rakyat was told last month that the money was spent on publicity efforts while Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob were prime ministers.

PETALING JAYA: Police are to investigate a report lodged by an Umno leader into possible misuse of RM700 million in public funds meant for federal government publicity campaigns from 2020 to 2022.

Umno communications director Lokman Noor Adam said one of his officers lodged a police report at the Setapak police station at about 2pm, Bernama reported.

“The amount spent is huge… we (the people) want to know how the RM700 million was spent. We have sources claiming there is suspected abuse of power involving former staff of the previous prime ministers.

Lokman Noor Adam.

“We want the police to investigate the matter, and also an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission,” he said.

Wangsa Maju district police chief Ashari Abu Samah confirmed that the report was lodged today. “We will conduct an investigation, which will include contacting the finance ministry for clarification,” he said.

The RM700 million expenditure was revealed by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the Dewan Rakyat on Nov 7. He said the money was spent to promote the two previous governments in power from 2020 to 2022.

Anwar said RM500 million was spent during Muhyiddin Yassin’s tenure as prime minister. The sum included promoting the government’s Covid-19 initiatives.

Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who succeeded Muhyiddin, “didn’t spend that much and there were leftover allocations”, Anwar said.

“For 2023, there were no additional allocations,” he said during the prime minister’s question time. For next year, the finance ministry has been instructed to only approve a maximum of RM100 million for the same purposes.

Earlier this year, the government revealed that a little more than RM62 million was spent on Ismail’s “Keluarga Malaysia” government. - FMT