KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) confirmed today that it is investigating RM700 million spent for publicity purposes under two previous federal administrations.
Sources said the probe was initiatied to look into the spending that was carried out for these purposes allegedly between 2020 to 2022 under the two previous prime ministers.
They said the MACC visited the Finance Ministry (MOF) and the Prime Minister's Department to start the investigation process, gather information and obtain relevant documents today.
The investigation was based on the initial information the commission received following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's statement in Parliament on Nov 7.
At that time, the prime minister was responding to a question from Batu member of Parliament P. Prabakaran, who had asked the government to disclose the total amount spent by the government on promotional and publicity work to showcase the government's achievements through all media platforms, including print, digital and television between 2020 until November 2023.
Following Anwar's statement in Parliament, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil took to X to say that the public has the right to know how the RM700 million was spent.
"The MACC is taking proactive action to conduct an investigation following the disclosure of the utilisation of RM700 million, recently.
"The preliminary investigation aims to determine how the funds were spent and whether the process followed the correct procedures," said the commission in a statement today.
Senior Director of Investigations Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hashim, when contacted, confirmed the investigation but declined to disclose further details
The New Straits Times had earlier confirmed that that two teams from MACC were deployed to the Finance Ministry and Prime Minister's Department offices to obtain the required documents to facilitate this investigation.
On Nov 7, Anwar had told Parliament that the previous administrations spent RM700 million from 2020 to 2022 on promotion and publicity work.
Anwar said more than RM500 million was spent during the leadership of Pagoh MP Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's time, and the remainder was spent under Bera MP Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob's tenure as prime minister.
He had also said that he considered the average RM300 million a year spent on promotional activities as a violation of "regulations and decorum".
On Nov 8, Muhyiddin refuted the amount by citing a written reply by former Minister in Prime Minister's Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Functions) Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali in the Dewan Rakyat on Feb 14 last year, which stated that the Perikatan Nasional government only spent RM181,752.20 for branding.
On Dec 30, Umno communications director Datuk Lokman Noor Adam also lodged a police report over alleged misuse of funds by two federal administrations amounting to RM700 million for publicity campaigns and advertising from 2020 to 2022.
On Monday, it was reported that MACC was set to summon a former prime minister and two aides as part of its investigation into three separate cases involving alleged misappropriation of funds.
The aides were associated with two different former prime ministers.
