KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 9 — Parti Amanah Negara’s Shah Alam MP Khalid Abdul Samad has accused Perikatan Nasional (PN) lawmakers of “sleeping on the job”.

Khalid said this was the reason why the PN government has decided to revive the Special Affairs Department (Jasa) which was disbanded when the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition was in office.

“These are the jobs of the lawmakers, people’s representatives.

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“Are the PN MPs sleeping and so cannot do their jobs right?” he said when debating the Budget 2021 Bill today.

The former Federal Territories minister added that there are sufficient MPs, assemblymen, residents associations and many other agencies that have the same responsibilities as Jasa.

“PN MPs should be doing their jobs and not reviving a unit that contributes nothing (Jasa yang tidak berjasa).

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“Jasa hasn’t contributed anything, just as Permata wasn’t contributing anything,” he added.

Permata was the brainchild of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, who is the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. It aimed to offer early education and childcare for children under four years old, particularly for households income below RM4,000.

However July, according to the 2018 Auditor-General’s Report Series 3, the management of the programme failed to reach the optimum level of efficiency as many targets were left unmet.

The A-G cited management weaknesses in the selection of its participants, payment of monthly fees, teachers, infrastructure, learning environment and monitoring.

As for Jasa, it was set up as Barisan Nasional’s propaganda unit, and was dissolved in 2018.

Before it was disbanded, Jasa was allocated RM30 million in the 2018 Budget under Najib’s leadership.

In Budget 2021, the PN government has allocated RM85.5 million to Jasa with the justification that it was necessary to repopulate the unit with qualified staff.