BUDGET 2019 | The Pakatan Harapan government has slashed this year's expenditure for the Prime Minister's Department (PMD) by more than half to RM7.54 billion.
The revision is RM9.89 billion less than the RM17.43 billion former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak originally allocated for the department in last year’s budget.
However, overall, the Harapan government is actually estimated to spend RM1.82 billion more this year than what Najib had originally allocated for government ministries.
These changes were observed in documents for the Harapan government's 2019 expected expenditure, which contained the revised 2018 figures.
The cuts from the PMD are likely from Harapan's move to shutter or shift agencies from under the prime minister's purview.
Meanwhile, RM3.32 billion also had to be allocated for two new ministries, namely the Economic Affairs Ministry (RM2.69 billion), and the Entrepreneur Development Ministry (RM636 million).
However, there were also budget hikes for various ministries.
It is unclear whether these increases occurred before or after the change of government on May 10.
The Finance Ministry, for example, saved RM253 million in operation expenses, but its development expenditure shot up by RM4.1 billion.
Other ministries whose total expected budget increased were: Works (RM1.98 billion increase); Water, Land, and Natural Resources (RM1.27 billion increase); Federal Territories (RM352 million increase); Science and Technology (RM310 million increase); and Transport (RM52 million increase).
Also having overshot their original budgets were Home Ministry (RM970 million increase); Youth and Sports (RM493 million increase); Housing and Local Government (RM432 million increase); Communications and Multimedia (RM105 million increase); and Human Resources (RM24 million increase).
The Education Ministry, meanwhile, was over budget by RM104 million after taking into account that it had absorbed the Higher Education Ministry.
Ministries that cut their budgets were Rural and Regional Development (RM960 million less); Defence (RM366 million less); Domestic Trade (RM115 million less); Agriculture (RM70 million less); International Trade and Industry (RM49 million less); Women and Family Development (RM1 million less); and Health (RM1 million less).
The budgets for three ministries were unchanged, namely Tourism (RM999 million); Primary Industries (RM938 million); and Foreign Affairs (RM741 million).
Under the Najib administration, any changes to the estimated expenditure would only be reflected two years later – for example, the estimated expenditure for 2016 only showed a revised figure in Budget 2018.
