PM wants statutory bodies to make paradigm shift, be more transparent

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim wants federal statutory bodies to make a paradigm shift and be more transparent by reviewing the structure and vision of their respective establishments and refraining from taking actions that contradict good governance.

He said that although the federal statutory bodies have shown quite a proud overall performance, there is still room for improvement to ensure they did not deviate from their original objectives.

For example, he said that based on a report received from Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, there is an agency established to help the poor but 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 chairpersons still receive fixed allowances.

“Say a BOD chairperson 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 today.

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.

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 Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz, MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki, auditor-general Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi and Implementation Coordination Unit director-general Azman Ibrahim.

- Bernama

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