PM’s discretionary “Near slush funds” amount to RM 20 billion in four years

The concentration of discretionary financial resources in the hands of the Prime Minister has reached an unprecedented stage. RM 20 billion has been budgeted for what I call “Near Slush Funds” between 2011 and 2014.

On 30th October, I raised the alarm that five items in the Prime Minister’s Department’s development budget for 2014 are “near slush funds”, namely “Restructuring of Society” (Penyusunan Semula Masyarakat), “Development programmes”  (Program Pembangunan), “Special Projects” (Projek Khas), “People Friendly Projects” (Projek Mesra Rakyat), “Facilitation Fund” (Dana Fasilitasi).

The sum of RM6.9 billion is 65 percent of PMD’s RM11 billion development allocation for 2014.

Digging further, such usage of “near slush funds” by the Prime Minister’s Department is a new phenomena since 2011. In 2010, “Restructuring of Society” (Penyusunan Semula Masyarakat – 00104) received only RM 158,090, 000.

 But I must qualify that the “Development of Five Corridors” (Pembangunan Lima Koridor – 00113) and NKEA (National Key Economic Areas – 94000) were the labels that used to receive billions of ringgit of discretionary funds. For instance, NKEA received RM 5.5 billion funds in 2011 (when it first appeared) but only RM12 million in 2014.

00113 Pembangunan Lima Koridor

RM

2010

3,486,598,000

2011

505,596,100

2012

670,400,800

2013

1,327,033,700

2014

1,572,149,200

94000 NKEA

RM

2011

5,465,500,000

2012

216,772,000

2013

41,549,000

2014

12,676,000

The government has been “addicted” to Prime Ministerial discretionary “Near Slush Funds” since 2011. The figure amounted to RM 2.8 billion in 2011; RM 4.3 billion in 2012; RM 5.9 billion in 2013 and RM 6.9 billion in 2014.

Kod

Near Slush Funds

2011

2012

2013

2014

RM

RM

RM

RM

00101/93500

Projek Khas

23,870,300

47,000,000

1,892,075,800

202,862,000

00104

Penyusunan Semula Masyarakat

660,000,000

800,000,000

1,140,000,000

900,000,000

00108

Program Pembangunan

126,000,000

335,500,000

353,090,000

1,087,245,300

93000

Projek-projek Kecil

1,009,761,600

600,000,000

93600

Projek Mesra Rakyat

665,000,000

97000

Dana Fasilitasi

1,000,000,000

2,500,000,000

2,500,000,000

4,000,000,000

2,819,631,900

4,282,500,000

5,885,165,800

6,855,107,300

This is a sum of almost RM20 billion (19,842,405,000) in four years.

Discretionary funding items with scant details or “near slush funds” now make up 15 percent of the entire development budget for 2014 of RM46 billion whereas it was only 0.3 percent in the 2010 development budget of RM53 billion. The overall development budget has dwindled over the years but PM’s “near slush funds” has grown exponentially.

Near Slush Funds

Total Annual Development Budgets

RM

RM

%

2010

158,090,000

53,219,657,000

0.30

2011

2,819,631,900

51,181,894,000

5.51

2012

4,282,500,000

51,248,900,000

8.36

2013

5,885,165,800

          49,749,999,000

11.83

2014

6,855,107,300

46,499,999,000

14.74

Something is very wrong with the way Prime Minister cum Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak handles our public coffers.

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