THE Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM) member allowance has been increased to RM40 per day from earlier this month, with a financial impact of RM1.8 million per year.

Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Functions Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Armizan Mohd Ali, said that the increase in allowance will benefit more than 10,000 APM volunteers in the country.

He said the allowance for volunteers was last increased to RM5 per day in 1970, and the move is in line with APM’s improvement in terms of strengthening the organisation, remuneration and human resources.

“According to statistics, the volunteers have saved 461 lives in water-related incidents during these five years,” he said at the closing ceremony of the national-level 2023 Civil Defence Beach Lifeguard Challenge (CDLC), in Pantai Batu 5, Port Dickson today.

Armizan said that his ministry would submit a request to the government on the need to create a contractual position in the volunteer force, to strengthen the agency’s role as the secretariat of disaster management committees in districts and states.

“Disaster management operates at three levels of committees, namely central, state and district. For states and districts, the secretariat for disaster management is the APM,” he said.

He said that the appointment of contract staff was important, because it included tasks such as recording APM assets, which is increasing over time.

Today’s event had a total of 402 participants, including 15 state APM contingents and three external agency teams. – Bernama, July 10, 2023.