Kuala Lumpur: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim wants federal statutory bodies to make a paradigm shift and be more transparent by reviewing their structure and vision, as well as refraining from acts that contradict good governance.
He said while federal statutory bodies have demonstrated good overall performance, there is still room for improvement to ensure that they do not deviate from their original objectives.
For example, he said based on a report received from deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, there is an agency established to help the poor which has 79 subsidiaries that have nothing to do with its original purpose.
“Of the total, 50 of these subsidiaries are losing money but the chairmen of their respective boards still receive fixed allowances.
Say a chairman receives a fixed monthly allowance of RM5,000 or a minimum of RM1,000. If he chairs the board of all 79 subsidiaries, he could easily get a minimum of RM79,000 a month,
Anwar said when launching the guidelines on the management and governance of federal statutory bodies here today.
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The prime minister said while some might claim that this happened because the chairman was appointed from among politicians, failures and violations in governance could be committed by anyone.
“It is the same thing among professionals, too. They can be professional cheaters.
We just need those who are appointed – politicians, professionals or civil servants – to follow the rules and be monitored more closely, especially by representatives of the finance ministry and the auditor-general as well as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), he said.
Anwar added that MACC and the auditor-general should be stricter with all agencies and federal statutory bodies to avoid violations of governance and corruption.
He said the government would also look into the possibility of providing additional allocations to expand the audit monitoring mechanism to all levels, i.e. federal, state and local authorities.
Anwar said this was to ensure that the operations of government agencies or statutory bodies are more transparent, to avoid corruption and acts of profit-making.
These agencies are important to generate economic growth, especially those established to help the Bumiputeras, but the violation of regulations and the tendency to make excessive profits cause the rights and interests of the Bumiputeras to be betrayed, and this is what we are worried about, he said.
