KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — The Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri administrations spent up to RM700 million for publicity and advertising contracts between 2020 to 2022, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in the Dewan Rakyat this morning.

Calling it "excessive”, Anwar said most of the publicity spending was made under the Prime Minister's Office’s budget with a huge sum channelled at promoting the two former prime ministers.

"RM500 million was spent by Pagoh and RM200 million for Bera,” Anwar, who is also finance minister, said during the Prime Minister’s Question Time.

He was referring to Bera MP Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob who was the ninth prime minister from August 2021 to November last year.

Ismail Sabri’s predecessor was Pagoh MP Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin from March 2020 to August 2021.

"This is equivalent to just over RM300 million a year. This to me is excessive and contravenes good governance.

"I have instructed the Ministry of Finance to impose a cap on publicity spending at just RM100 million,” Anwar added.

Indera Mahkota MP Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia suggested to Anwar that the Muhyiddin administration's large publicity spending was likely necessary because it needed to communicate the copious number of federal assistance disbursed during the Covid-19 crisis.

Anwar agreed with Saifuddin but claimed spending records suggested that huge sums were spent on promoting Muhyiddin instead.

"Most of the spending was made under the prime minister's office budget and channelled directly including for advertisements and payments to several media companies to promote the prime minister apart from his government,” he said.

"And this includes publicity... most of it to promote the prime minister, but yes, there may also include to explain various programmes linked to Covid,” he added.

Responding to another Opposition lawmaker, Anwar said no funds have been allocated for publicity under Budget 2023 but advertisements and media work are still carried out under contracts awarded by the Ismail Sabri government.