A FORMER prime minister and his aides will be called as part of an investigation into how allocations for promotions and publicity were spent during his administration, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki said.

He said the anti-graft agency will be in touch with the ex-prime minister soon.

“We will be calling him soon. Either this week or next week at the latest.

“We do not have many queries on how the allocation was decided or approved. It is more in relation to how it was spent and the companies which were given the tasks for the government’s promotion and publicity campaigns,” Azam told reporters today.

However, he did not name the prime minister.

Last week the MACC launched an investigation into allegations that RM700 million was spent on promotional and publicity to showcase the government’s achievements during the last two administrations between 2020 and 2022.

A source said the MACC went to the Finance Ministry and Prime Minister’s Department oin January 2 as part of the investigations and to gather documents related to the allegations.

The source added that investigations were based on Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s response to a question from Batu MP P. Prabakaran who was seeking an explanation on how much was spent by the government for promotional activities since 2020.

“The MACC took a proactive decision to investigate recent revelation that a whopping RM700 million was spent for promotional and publicity purposes.

“The expenditure included publicity initiatives carried out to promote the achievements of the government through all media platforms including print, digital media and television from 2020 to 2022,” said the source.

Following Anwar’s statement, Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on social media platform X that the public has the right to know how the RM700 million sum was spent. – January 8, 2024.