MALAYSIA: CABINET WANTS MINISTRIES, DEPTS TO BE PRUDENT IN SPENDING

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 (Bernama) -- The Cabinet, at its weekly meeting Wednesday,
decided that all ministries and government departments and agencies exercise
prudence in their spending to prevent any wastage of public funds, Information
Communication and Culture Minister Dr Rais Yatim said.

He said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak wanted all ministries,
departments and agencies to be cautious when determining projects and
construction costs.

The prime minister felt that the huge cost of any project could be reduced
to a reasonable sum, provided detailed calculations were made pertaining to the
components and types of building to be constructed, he told reporters after a
post-Cabinet meeting, here.

"It may be possible that we exclude materials which are extremely costly,
such
as imported stuff, or not be overly dependent on the advice of consultants who
propose very high prices," he said.

Dr Rais said there was no clear system to determine the cost of any project
and
that many government projects hinged on the advice of the project consultants.

As for projects of his ministry, he said the ministry would have a relook
to ensure that the cost of construction of any project was reasonable and the
project really fulfilled the need.

He felt that a system of determining cost should be established to serve as
a guide to set the cost of development projects under the ministry.

This would ensure that the ministry and its agencies did not overly depend
on the advice of consultants in determining the cost of any project.

On another matter, Dr Rais said the ministry was drawing up a programme
strategy to give the "people's touch" to the 1Malaysia concept.

He said the ministry would work closely with the Performance Management and
Delivery Unit (Pemandu) to implement 1Malaysia programmes nationwide.

-- BERNAMA