Half a million ringgit per flight for government VVIPs?

Does it really cost taxpayers almost RM500,000 every time Malaysian government VVIPs fly on executive flights?

DAP organising secretary Anthony Loke seemed to think so.

Loke on Thursday claimed that the half-a-million figure was derived from a Parliamentary written reply from the Prime Minister's Department (PMO) Thursday which stated that the government had spent more than RM180 million for fuel and maintenance to fly private for official trips in 2012.

In the statement released by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, it stated that this amount was spent on 372 flights last year with 339 of those being for official government functions.

The statement said, as much as RM14,951,448.04 were used for fueling flights and RM167,079.541.80 for aircraft maintenance.

The statement also said the government owns and operates six private jets known as Government Executive Jets. They include one unit of Falcon jet, one Global Express, one Boeing Business Jet, one Blackhawk and two Agusta jets.



“This is a form of wastage of public funds at a time when the Government is asking its people to save money,” Loke told reporters at Parliament lobby while accompanied by Pokok Sena MP Datuk Mahfuz Omar. Mahfuz alleged that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had used a executive jet to campaign in the recent Sungai Limau by-eleciton.

Loke later told Astro AWANI that he came to the RM500,000 figure by working out his own math based on the Parliamentary reply.

"This is wastage of the highest order. Why does the prime minister, his deputy and highest officers need to use executive planes for their flights when their destinations are local?”

Meanwhile, in an immediate response, Shahidan defended his statement, telling Astro AWANI that his figures were factual and correct.

On Loke’s RM500,000 claim, Shahidan shrugged it off as "mere calculations made by the opposition leader himself".