THE previous administration spent RM700 mil from 2020 to 2022 for advertisements and media buys to promote government initiatives, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Datuk Anwar Ibrahim.
He said this in response to a query from Batu MP P. Prabakaran, who wanted to know the total promotional spending by the government from 2020 until now.
According to Anwar, RM500 mil was spent when Pagoh MP Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was prime minister, and this included promoting the government’s COVID-19 initiatives, while the remainder was spent during Bera MP Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s tenure as prime minister.
“During Bera’s tenure as prime minister, he didn’t spend that much and there were leftover allocations. For 2023, there were no additional allocations,” he said during the prime minister’s question time, adding the present administration only honoured agreements signed during Ismail Sabri’s tenure.
Anwar, who is also the Tambun MP, said he considered the average RM300 mil a year spent on promotional activities as a violation of “regulations and decorum”.
He said that for next year, the finance ministry has been instructed to only approve a maximum of RM100 mil for the same purposes.
“The government should not be burdened by advertisements and publicity other than our programmes reaching out to the people, and explaining through the mass media, including social media,” he remarked.
Elaborating, Anwar said the existing mechanisms or councils could be utilised to elucidate the government’s new programmes or policies.
“We encourage ministers, deputy ministers, also MPs to just go down to the field and explain the programmes to the public,” he said. – Nov 7, 2023
Main pic credit: Bernama
