Saifuddin: No more flying first class for foreign minister, staff

SHAH ALAM: Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, his deputy minister, secretary-general and senior staff no longer fly first class for overseas trips as part of the ministry’s frugal spending practices.

Saifuddin said although their positions qualified them for firstclass seats, business class was the way to go now as the ministry needed to spend wisely.

“Ministers do not fly first class, despite being given the allowance for it. That is what we do now in Wisma Putra.

“For our stay at hotels, we use standard rooms. Even though the allocation says we qualify for better rooms, but rooms are just for us to sleep in. That saves us a lot (of money).

“We have been practising frugal spending and we will try and make do with whatever budget that we have,” he said yesterday.

He said he was happy that ambassadors, high commissioners and officers based overseas and in Wisma Putra had been managing their allocation well.

Saifuddin said this after launching the Global Peace Mission Humanitarian Fund for Yemen at Kompleks Karangkraf here.

He said he was satisfied with the allocation set aside for the ministry as announced by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in the tabling of the 2019 Budget.

In the 2018 Budget, the ministry, under the previous Barisan Nasional administration, received an allocation of RM739 million.

It was reported that in the 2019 Budget, RM748 million was set aside for the ministry.

Saifuddin said the ministry was not granted the amount it had applied for 2019 and foresaw the need for an additional allocation next year.