{
  "id": 15610084,
  "title": "Dana tambahan RM500 juta dilulus untuk kementerian Zahid selepas terlebih belanja",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/dana-tambahan-rm500-juta-dilulus-untuk-kementerian-zahid-selepas-15610084",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-19T13:54:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Free Malaysia Today",
    "slug": "free-malaysia-today",
    "url": "https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/bahasa/tempatan/2026/10/19/dana-tambahan-rm500-juta-dilulus-untuk-kementerian-zahid-selepas-terlebih-belanja"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Malaysia's government has approved an additional RM500 million allocation for the Minister of Rural and Regional Development, Zahid Hamidi, following the department's overspending. Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim revealed that the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKDW) has been allocated RM2.11 billion for the year, which is an increase of more than RM500 million compared to 2025. This spending surpasses the budget set in 2023, 2024, and 2025. However, the increase in funding is still insufficient, prompting the Finance Ministry to take further steps.\n\nFirstly, the Finance Ministry identified and deducted development expenditure cuts from other ministries, resulting in the approval of an additional RM500 million for 2026. Secondly, on September 10, the Finance Ministry instructed KKDW to delay the issuance of a new approval letter for the road projects until the pending payments to contractors are reduced. Lastly, KKDW is asked to provide funding for road projects until the end of 2026 and 2027 based on the approved contracts.\n\nAnwar, who also serves as the Prime Minister, responded to questions raised by Lim Guan Eng regarding the actions taken against KKDW's continuous overspending. Lim questioned whether the contractors for KKDW projects were selected through open tender procedures. Anwar explained that the government introduced a Pre-qualification Open Tender System (POTPT) in KKDW in 2023, but a report by the Auditor General last year found that the new system failed to achieve its intended objectives. Consequently, the Finance Ministry has halted the approval of the POTPT system by KKDW for new projects.\n\nRecently, Zahid revealed that some contractors for the road projects have been receiving government payments late, leading to some contractors having to shut down their operations. The Deputy Director General of the Treasury, Johan Mahmood Merican, reported that most of the budget for this year's road projects has been spent, causing payment delays. He further noted that the budget has been fully allocated, while KKDW has consistently overspent its annual budget since several years ago, with accumulated overspending totaling RM2.1 billion from 2023 to 2025.",
  "summary": "Perbendaharaan turut mengarahkan Kementerian Kemajuan Desa dan Wilayah menangguhkan pengeluaran surat setuju terima baharu bagi projek jalan luar bandar.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Free Malaysia Today",
        "title": "Dana tambahan RM500 juta dilulus untuk kementerian Zahid selepas terlebih belanja",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/dana-tambahan-rm500-juta-dilulus-untuk-kementerian-zahid-selepas",
        "published": "2026-10-19T13:54:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}