Time for M'sia to move away from political appointments to GLCs, statutory bodies, says think tank

The Star

It is time for Malaysia to transition away from political appointments in Federal Statutory Bodies (FSBs) and Government Linked Companies (GLCs) to ensure good governance and integrity, says the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).  The non-profit research institute said the continued persistence of political appointments in these entities underscored the deep entrenchment of politics in Malaysia's public sector governance.  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/yw8kvrc2   WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00Tantau Kuasa is IDEA's web platform for educating the public on the importance of good governance

00:09in federal statutory bodies and government-linked companies, GLCs.

00:15Through simple but in-depth content, we aim to make the level of political influence in

00:21this sector visible to everyone in the public, so that everyone can see just what is the

00:31level of political influence there.

00:33So this year, I'm glad to announce that on top of the data that we have had for federal

00:39statutory bodies' political appointments there, we are also including a new dataset on GLC

00:47political appointments.

00:49So IDEA has long advocated for governance reforms of the public sector, and to ensure

00:55that these entities achieve their policy objectives rather than getting diverted for political

01:02interests.

01:05And we hope to see these three things, one, regulatory reform to strengthen governance

01:13standards, and this will include standards for prevention of conflict of interest, declaring

01:20the conflict of interest publicly, an institutionalised procedure for board appointments, mandatory

01:27publishing of annual reports, secondly, independent or non-partisan vetting and selection process

01:34for appointments to the boards of public sector entities, and stronger parliamentary oversight

01:41for public sector performance.

01:43Altogether, these reforms will aim to professionalise public sector entities and prevent political

01:48interference while strengthening oversight.

01:52So as Chuck has shared, this is a monitoring exercise, and it's for the public right now

02:00to make that judgement.

02:02You can go in and look and see for yourself.

02:06We don't make that judgement on individuals, we are just monitoring.

02:10What we would recommend is that the government put in place soon the law governing statutory

02:19bodies and GLCs that it says it wants to put in place, which should include qualifying

02:26and disqualifying criteria.

02:28Some of the statutory bodies have minimal criteria in the acts, but right now these

02:37are not standardised, and it's still quite a lot of discretionary appointments can happen

02:44through the minister's right to appoint the chair or the director to an open position.

02:52So that's what we would like to avoid, to ensure that there is a transparent appointment

02:58process.

02:59Over 1,800 GLCs and over 100 statutory bodies, even for Parliament it would be quite a burden

03:09to look at every single appointment.

03:13So we would recommend that there's a central coordinating entity that follows a due process

03:21for vetting.

03:23Where Parliament could have oversight would be in very critical appointments, say the

03:29chairpersons of large statutory bodies, like the ones that we mentioned that are now in

03:33trouble like Tabung Haji, Felda, these are of very high public interest.

03:39So maybe Parliament could have a role through a select committee to scrutinise such appointments

03:46before they are made.

03:48So it could be a specific list of high-level public interest GLCs and FSBs.

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Transcript

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