J-Kom spent RM14,500 on Covid-19 publicity efforts

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of RM14,500 was spent by the Community Communications Department (J-Kom) under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry to publicise efforts on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was mentioned in a Parliamentary reply by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob dated Sept 21.

"The total allocation spent for publicising efforts in addressing Covid-19 cost RM14,500, for a programme involving frontliners and Covid-19 patients at the Malaysian Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS)," said Ismail Sabri.

He was responding to Isnaraissah Munirah (Warisan-Kota Belud), who asked how much was spent by J-Kom in its publicity of the government's efforts against Covid-19.

Ismail Sabri also said J-Kom had organised initiatives which came at no cost by providing a total of 291 creative content such as posters, videos and photos, which were made into social media postings and tweets at Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp.

"Based on the programmes that are being planned and implemented, it is clear that no J-Kom allocations were misused for political programmes," he said.

J-Kom was formerly known as the Special Affairs Department (Jasa).

It previously came under fire for an RM85.5mil allocation under Budget 2021 and it was later reduced to RM40.5mil