While much has been said on the need for Petronas to be more transparent, on the other hand, little has been said about another government institution - Khazanah Nasional Berhad.

Khazanah Nasional Berhad is a 100% subsidiary of the Minister of Finance Inc. (MOF Inc.)

In 2004, under a Abdullah Ahmad Badawi inspired transformation exercise, about RM60 billion worth of shares controlled by the MOF Inc. was transferred to Khazanah.

It has been reported in Finance Asia in 2004 that when its CEO baton was handed over to Azman Mokhtar in 2004, the instruction from Prime Minister Abdullah was for ‘nothing less than a remaking of Malaysia Inc’

Today, though various publicity blitzes by the various government-controlled media outlets, the rakyat have been given the impression that Khazanah is indeed doing very well.

It has been reported that it has settled or in the process of settling the various ‘legacy issues’ that it inherited from the previous administration and strides have been made, particularly in the banking sector in Indonesia.

But there doubts whether this is actually the case. This is because there is simply no hard evidence to support this claim.

Khazanah, like Petronas, does not publish its full accounts. By not publishing its accounts, there is simply no way for the public to know whether Khazanah is indeed a profitable entity as it claims to be.

We have no way of knowing of how much of the initial MoF Inc shares worth RM60 billion given to it has grown. If Khazanah is really doing well, what are its profits? How much assets does it have? What is the value of its shareholder's funds?

We have also heard rumours that there are many thirty-somethings vice-presidents and directors in Khazanah who are being generously paid many times higher than the average Malaysian workers.

If this is indeed the case, then what is the salary of its CEO and its top management? Perhaps in this era of greater transparency, openess and accountability as advocated by its chairperson - the honourable prime minister himself - maybe the time has come for Khazanah to come clean and release its full financial statements to the rakyat.

It has even been reported that the IMF - during its 2006 Article IV consultation with Malaysia - had requested Khazanah to publish its annual audited accounts.

If Temasek, the Singapore government’s investment arm that it is modelled after, could publish its accounts and annual reports on the Internet, why should we expect a much smaller entity like Khazanah to do anything less?