By Khairul Khalid
The government allocated RM4.9 billion on the security sector in 2015, according to the 2015/2016 Economic Report by the Finance Ministry.
“In safeguarding national border and security, the armed forces including the Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom), has been a substantial allocation of RM3.6 billion,” said the report.
The expenses include improvement on surveillance, upgrade and purchase of military equipment as well as building and refurbishing quarters and camps.
“To further improve internal security and public safety, RM1.3 billion is provided to enhance the capacity and capability of the uniformed personnel through upgrading forensic equipment and system, refurbishing district police headquarters as well as skills and training enhancement especially on cyber crime,” said the report.
The allocation on security is part of the government’s overall development expenditure (DE) that is expected to grow by 20% in 2015 to RM47.4 billion.
The economic sector remains the largest recipient of DE at 59.7% followed by social (26.3%), security (10.4%) and general administration (3.6%) sectors.
The transport subsector, at 30.8% or RM8.7 billion, is the largest recipient of DE for the economic sector. This allocation is mainly for the construction, maintenance and upgrading of roads and bridges, airports and ports as well as railways.
Among the ongoing projects in the transport subsector are the construction of the West Coast Expressway from Taiping to Banting; construction of a 6.6 km electrified double-track railway from Subang Jaya to Sri Subang; acquisition of 10 electric train sets; upgrading airports in Kota Kinabalu, Miri and Mukah; as well as upgrading services and repairing of railway lines between Gua Musang and Tumpat that were badly damaged during the massive floods in 2014.
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