KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged federal statutory bodies to undergo a paradigm shift towards greater transparency by reviewing the structure and vision of their respective establishments and refraining from taking actions that contradict good governance.
While acknowledging their generally commendable performance, Anwar said that there is still potential for improvement to ensure they remain aligned with their core objectives.
Based on a report received from Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, an agency established to help the poor was found to have 79 subsidiaries that had nothing to do with the original purpose of its establishment.
“Of the total, 50 of these subsidiaries suffered losses, but their board of directors (BoD) chairmen still receive fixed allowances.
“Say a BoD chairman receives a fixed monthly allowance of RM5,000 or a minimum of RM1,000.
“If he chairs the BoD 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.
The prime minister said some may claim that it happened because the chairman was appointed from among politicians, but he believed that governance failure and violations can be committed by anyone.
“It is the same thing among the professionals too. They can be professional cheaters.
“We just need those who were appointed, either politicians, professionals or civil servants, to follow the rules and be monitored more closely, especially by representatives of the Finance Ministry, the auditor-general and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC),” he said.
Accordingly, Anwar said he wants the MACC and the auditor-general to be stricter with all agencies and federal statutory bodies to avoid violations of governance and corruption.
He said the government will also look into the possibility of providing additional allocations to expand the audit monitoring mechanism to all levels, for example federal, state and local authorities.
Anwar said this is 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 Bumiputera, but the violation of regulations and the tendency to make excessive profits cause the rights and interests of Bumiputera to be betrayed, and this is what we are worried about,” he said.
Meanwhile, the launch of the guidelines today was meant to provide an instrument and framework for the governance ecosystem related to federal statutory bodies.
Among other things, it also emphasises the empowerment of the role of Internal Audit as a whole at the statutory body level, including their subsidiaries and corporations.
Also present at the event were Public Services director-general Datuk Seri Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz, MACC chief Tan Sri Azam Baki, auditor-general Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi and Implementation Coordination Unit director-general Datuk Seri Azman Ibrahim. – August 9, 2024
