We applaud the governtment's effort to restructure GLCs and instill good corporate governance and transparency. In that process, it is hoped that their performance and efficiency improves dramatically. But this can only happen if implemented fairly and effectively so that our target audience knows that the government means business. 'Cakap tak serupa bikin' is the biggest enemy in this endeavour.

In the case of Tenaga Nasional Bhd - which is clamouring for tariff increases that will only burden the rakyat - is quite an inefficient organisation with many executives in supernumery positions earning five-figure salaries just because of their seniority. Hence, you have executives being paid private sector salaries for very little of public sector level of efficiency.

In efficiency benchmarking, the megawatt output per employee of TNB is only about 60 percent compared to the best managed utilities of the world such as Tokyo Electric Power, Korea Electric Power and EDF of France. So there is a long way to go and putting inexperienced heads and expecting miracles to happen will not solve the situation. Only in Malaysia do you get a highly technical organisation such as an electric utility being headed by an accountant, one that is inexperienced and lacking in any credible track record.

There are many reasons for this inefficiencies and one of them is the lack of good corporate governance practices. Hence, if the stakeholders would want to implement good corporate governance, it has to start at the board level which is the supreme authority of the company.

One board member has managed to place himself on the board for over 20 years. He also expertly uses his position on the board's Audit Committee to pressure some key members of management into submission. He then uses this situation to manipulate matters such as contracts and lobby for certain shrewd suppliers.

This unholy alliance has been more intense in the recent years as he is able to expertly manipulate the situation given his overstaying on the board. This is contrary to the government's effort to inculcate good corporate governance and transparency by limiting a board member's tenure in GLCs to an average five years only.

This is one of the reasons why implementation of good corporate governance has hit the wall as leaders are not being good examples for their people to follow. Continuous action should be taken to weed out these anomalies so that all levels of society will take ownership of the noble endeavour towards a higher level of integrity.