LETTER | Kudos and all praise to the government on its recent announcement that the services of chairpersons and board members of GLCs, GLICs, and federal statutory bodies including those under Finance Ministry Incorporated appointed via political decrees are terminated with immediate effect as announced by the Chief Secretary to the Government, Mohd Zuki Ali.

Apart from the foregoing, there are also CEOs of many federal bodies who were appointed at the whims and fancies of the former ministers without consideration for professional competency, skills, expertise, and relevant prior experience. These agencies are not revenue-generating nor profit-oriented but still, the CEOs, chairpersons and board members earn incredibly exorbitant remunerations with unbelievable perks.

It is an open secret that many of them were appointed for dubious reasons and their performance is largely dismal.

This brilliant move and directive must also be extended to cover all state-owned companies and Menteri Besar Incorporated agencies, at least in states ruled by the government’s component parties.

Then, we have countless advisers and special envoys with ministerial status who earn fat salaries, bonuses, allowances, and other perks. This must stop immediately.

The government must ensure that all the salaries, allowances, bonuses, and perks are capped at a reasonable level and they must be made accountable via strict and stringent KPIs. Failure to achieve the KPIs must result in termination. It's best that their contracts are limited to a yearly basis and renewed only when they have proven their worth.

Those who are with non-revenue generating and profit-oriented bodies must be made accountable for the efficiency and effectiveness of their organizations by clear and defined customer satisfaction results and feedback.

Some of these CEOs and chairpersons are paid hundreds of thousands of ringgit monthly.

Don’t they have any decency and conscience?

Don’t we aspire to recruit the best of the best especially when these organisations are publicly owned and financed by taxpayers?

Don’t we want to practice meritocracy’ or is it still cronyism?

Shouldn’t we appoint only competent professionals with unblemished character and integrity beyond reproach?

The positions should be open to all qualified and professionally competent Malaysians and not confined to a select and chosen few. And this is what we call fairness, just and transparent governance.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.