RM170m wasted on public relations exercise’
PKR today took the government to task for spending 71% of its RM240 million on improving the public's perception of the police.
PETALING JAYA: The government spent RM170 million on public relations exercise instead of using the RM240 million allocation to fight crime.
PKR party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said 71% of this year’s budget allocation was spent on such exercise rather investing in infrastructure and training to curb the rising crime rate.
The allocation is under the National Key Results Area (NKRA).This is in addition to the budget allocated to the police force.
“Based on the 2012 Budget for the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), it shows the focus was excessively on managing public perception rather than fighting crime.
“I assume the government feels ‘big fast results’ are achieved by making us feel crime is falling rather than restructuring security arrangements in the country,” she told a press conference at PKR headquarters here.
She said the amount spent on managing perception of crime far out-weighs allocations for other core activities.
Cross-referring the allocation with last year’s crime reduction report, Wan Azizah said that according to last year’s report around 3% was allocated to prevent and train vehicle theft prevention, and 11% was on reducing snatch and street thefts.This included RM15 million spent on purchasing CCTVs.
‘Clearly something is wrong’
Around 3% of the budget was allocated for training investigators and improving evidence-gathering techniques. Some 11% was spent on improving public perception of the police.
PKR also questioned how the money was spent as only two surveys were conducted based on last year’s crime reduction report.
PKR chairman of the Investment and Trade Bureau, Wong Chen, questioned why so much was spent on managing perception, especially when it was not clear what the money was spent on.
“Usually you would spend about 70% tackling crime and 30% on improving perception.
“Based on last year’s crime reduction report, only two surveys were conducted under this category (reducing fear). The bulk of money went to that category rather than accumulating assets such as CCTVs or providing training to officers.
“It is ridiculous the amount of money spent on managing perception. You spend at most about RM100,000 per survey. What are they using the money for?” he asked.
He suggested that the government focus on spending more on street lights and hidden mirrors to curb the rising number of crime instead of spending on surveys to manage public perception.
Wan Azizah added that there was “clearly something wrong” with the government for spending so much on managing public perception.
“I am the mother of five daughters and I have one daughter-in-law. I am really concerned for the safety of women.
“The government has yet to answer questions which I raised last week. To this I add this question: why is the government crime prevention response highly reliant on public relations? I continue to wait for answers from the government,” she said.
Last week, she asked why police made 733,237 spy reports and security checks in 2010, three times more than the 211,645 investigation papers under criminal investigation opened by the police in the same period.
Read more: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/07/10/rm170m-wasted-on-police-public-relations/#ixzz20Df7tTwv
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