KUALA LUMPUR – Following accusations by opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) will be spending RM200 million on contractual staff, Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof said the funds are for various government agencies.
The special functions minister said the allocation is to pay for contractual staff in the Civil Defence Force, Islamic Development Department, Mufti Department, Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, and the National Disaster Management Agency.
During the debate session hours ago, Anwar had accused the government of using public funds to pay the salaries of political staff.
He pointed out that the RM200 million is allocated for 2021 with an increase of RM181.4 million.
Later, Anwar’s aide told The Vibes that he meant to say an increase of RM108 million.
Meanwhile, Redzuan also addressed Anwar’s accusation that the Perikatan Nasional administration has too many ministries.
“Our appointments are based on the need to ensure government projects and programmes can be done in a way that will have a measurable impact on the country," said Mohd Redzuan.
“PH had 28 ministers and PN now has only 32. As for deputy ministers, PH had 27 and we have 37. But we also have more ministries now, 27 compared to 25 before."
However, Khalid Samad (PH-Shah Alam) interjected to ask if the PN administration chose to appoint a high number of ministers to garner support for Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Redzuan reiterated that a bigger PN administration is due to the needs required to run government programmes and projects. – The Vibes, November 30, 2020
