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He pointed out that when JASA was under the watch of Umno leader Puad Zarkashi as its director-general from 2015 to 2018, the department received a total of RM97.4 million in the annual budgets.
Lim quoted an aide to former communications and multimedia minister Gobind Singh Deo as saying that one of its agencies, the information department, possessed sufficient staff, expertise and equipment to dispense government performance and policies to the ground.
“Can the Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz and the Communications and Multimedia Minister Saifuddin Abdullah then explain why there is a need to revive JASA?
“Saifuddin has not contradicted a report five days ago that quoted him as saying he did not know that JASA was being revived with a whopping allocation of RM85.5 million.
“If Saifuddin is not the person who would finally be in charge of JASA, the question is who will,” Lim asked in a statement today.
The Iskandar Puteri MP reiterated that reviving JASA was a misuse of government funds in this time of pandemic when the money could be used to support frontliners and other measures to combat Covid-19.
According to the finance ministry’s website, the purpose of JASA was to develop the community at the grassroots level through effective communication between the government and the people.
A total of RM4 million was allocated under the strategic communications funding and another RM81.5 was given under the annual budget.
Several Umno leaders have urged Putrajaya to justify the RM85.5 million allocated to JASA in the budget, saying they would not agree if the unit is merely used for propaganda purposes.
Umno information chief Shahril Sufian Hamdan said it would be justifiable if the department plays an effective role as an information unit in rural areas, but maintained that the allocation of more than RM80 million was too big.
JASA was shut down in May 2018 after the Pakatan Harapan government launched an austerity campaign following its win in the last general election.
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