KUALA LUMPUR: The government will spend some RM690 million to maintain a newly-acquired private jet to be used by the prime minister for the next 15 years, PKR’s Rafizi Ramli revealed yesterday.

He said that including services to maintain an older private jet for the next seven years, the total costs for operation, maintenance and management (OMM) of both aircraft would amount to RM1.098 billion.

“The contract for OMM for the new ACJ320 jet shows that the costs have been set at RM46 million per year. This means that in the next 15 years, when the hire purchase agreement ends, the total OMM costs will be RM690 million,” he said at the Parliament lobby.

Rafizi also said that the total cost of both private jets, including purchase and servicing, would cost the government almost RM1.6 billion over the next 15 years.

The older private jet, an ACJ319, was bought in 2007. Putrajaya has spent RM304 million on the OMM costs of the jet so far.

Rafizi revealed two weeks ago that Putrajaya had ordered a new private aircraft for Najib’s use, which was later confirmed by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The Prime Minister’s Office said that the Airbus corporate jetliner was bought to replace the 16-year-old Boeing business jet.

Rafizi said that the new purchase had brought the tally to seven aircraft owned by the government.

Last week, Rafizi said that Putrajaya had paid an excess of RM109 million for the latest private jet from Jet Premier One (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (JPO), a private company that had acquired the aircraft from Air Luther AG.

He said this amount was derived from the current market value of the ACJ320 compared to the price the Malaysian government had paid to JPO.

“JPO sold the ACJ320 private jet at a hire purchase price, causing Putrajaya to pay a higher price from the cost that it would incur if it had bought the jet itself, without JPO,” he added. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 1, 2015.