PORT DICKSON - The Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM) volunteer member allowance has been increased to RM40 per day from earlier this month, with a financial impact of RM1.8 million per year.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Functions), Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali, said that the increase in allowance will benefit more than 10,000 APM volunteers in the country.
He said that the allowance for volunteers was last increased to RM5 per day in 1970, and the move is in line with APM's improvement in terms of strengthening the organisation, remuneration and human resources.
"According to the statistics, the volunteers have saved 461 lives in drowning accidents on the beaches during these five years,” he said at the closing ceremony of the national-level 2023 Civil Defence Beach Lifeguard Challenge (CDLC), in Pantai Batu 5, here today.
Meanwhile, Armizan said that his ministry would submit to the government on the need to create a contractual position in the APM, to strengthen the agency's role as the secretariat of disaster management committees in districts and states.
"Disaster management operates at three levels of committees, namely central, state and district. For the states and districts, the secretariat for disaster management is the APM," he said.
He said that the appointment of the contract staff was important, because it included tasks such as recording APM assets, which were increasing over time.
Today’s event had a total of 402 participants, including 15 state APM contingents and three external agency teams. - BERNAMA