The chairman of the Employees Provident Fund has gone on record to acknowledge that the fund has to be careful about how its funds are invested because they belong to the more than 10 million contributors.

However we do not get this same message from other similar organisations. Take Permodalan Nasional Berhad, for example.

Besides some questionable expenditure, PNB gives 'golden handshakes' to its retiring (or resigning) chief executive officers (CEOs) - sometimes up to 20 percent of the paid-up capital of the companies under its control.

When PNB was set up many years ago, it was recommended that shares owned by government agencies be transferred to PNB at a nominal value, which was way below the true value. In other words, for the sake of PNB, these organisations were willing to be generous in order for PNB to succeed.

By giving individuals such huge share allocations as rewards, PNB has defiled the very spirit and reason why it was set up. If all the government-linked comanies were to practise PNB's policies, there will be nothing left in a few more years as the CEO's resign and retire on a regular basis.

There really is no reason to provide such huge rewards as these retiring officers have their gratuity and EPF, not to mention what they have saved from their generous salaries and perks.