By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal The Malaysian Insider Jun 15, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — A total of RM63.9 million was spent to hire consultants for Pemandu and to organise three open days for Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) initiatives, the government said today.
Minister in the prime minister’s department Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon said that the government had paid RM36.3 million to various consultants, while RM27.6 million was used for the open days in Kuching, Kuala Lumpur, and Kota Kinabalu last year.
In two written replies to DAP’s Liew Chin Tong, Koh said that the costs were justified as they were far lower than the allocated budget.
Koh said that Pemandu had appointed seven consultancy firms to execute government labs as well as prepare reports for showcasing purposes and press kits.
“The expenditure for consultants for eight National Key Result Area (NKRA) labs from September to October 2009 cost RM6.3 million, (and) it was managed wholly by the consultants.
“For 12 National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs) labs from May to June 2010, RM16 million (was spent) and for 12 other labs from January to November 2010 (the cost was) RM14 million, half of which Pemandu officers had conducted on their own.
“Whereas for six SRL (Strategic Reform Initiatives) that were organised from February to April 2011, they were completely managed by Pemandu officers, without the involvement of consultants,” said Koh.
Koh said that other governments around the world also engaged consultants and sought expert advice to provide guidelines and aid to the government to improve its performance.
Liew had also asked the government to state the publicity costs for the launch of, road shows and advertisements for the GTP and ETP programmes.
For the GTP programmes, Koh said the total cost of the open day, which took place over three days in Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, came up to RM5.4 million.
“Meanwhile, for communications and publicity, RM9.7 million (was spent), so in total, it was RM15.1 million,” he said.
He explained that RM5.44 billion had been allocated for GTP programmes last year and that the amount spent was less than 0.28 per cent of total allocations.
“It is also far less than the cost of communications spent by the private sector. It should be noted that six key result areas under the NKRA for 2010 achieved 93 per cent in performance and by spending RM4.31 billion, or only 80 per cent of the budget,” he said.
Koh said that the government had spent RM12.5 million for its ETP programmes — RM5.7 million for the launch and open day that took place over three days, as well as RM6.8 million for communications.