THE Muhyiddin Yassin administration’s RM4.472 billion budget for the Prime Minister’s Department next year returns the powerful unit to the heydays of the Barisan Nasional government before it fell in 2018.

Its budget total operational expenditure is RM482 million higher than the Pakatan Harapan’s 2020 allocation of RM3.99 billion and RM906 million higher than the 2019 allocation, according to Treasury Department notes.

Former prime minister Najib Razak’s office was allocated RM4.6 billion and RM4.9 billion for opex in 2018 and 2017 respectively.

Of the RM482 million additional allocation, RM89 million is earmarked for salaries, RM75 million for services and supplies and RM307 million for fixed payments.

Although the Prime Minister’s Department has some 30 agencies, such as the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim), National Disaster Management Authority and Department of Statistics under it, the bulk of the increase in emoluments (RM33 million) is for management, which has 7,444 personnel.

The total emoluments for management under the Prime Minister’s Department in 2021 are RM470 million for 7,444 personnel. In 2020, the same department had 7,446 personnel.

Administration also saw a jump of RM27 million in emoluments to RM135 million although the number of staff appears to remain stagnant at 1,444.

The next highest is the judicial and legal department (RM22 million), which has 1,806 personnel.

The Prime Minister’s Department will also receive RM6.7 billion for development expenditure.

Among the biggest items listed in the Treasury notes for development expenditure is “special project” at RM1 billion. Other than an estimated cost of RM5 billion, there are no other details about the project in the notes.

RM813 million is also allocated for public-private partnerships (PPP) and RM731 million for digitising government services.

In contrast, Budget 2021 allocated RM3 million for poverty eradication programmes for the peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak under the Prime Minister’s Department. In 2019, the actual expenditure here was RM69 million.

In Budget 2020 and 2019, the Prime Minister’s Department was allocated RM6.6 billion and RM3.4 billion for development expenses respectively. – November 7, 2020.