KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri 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 Datuk Seri Dr 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 (BOD) chairmen still receive fixed allowances.
“Say a BOD chairman 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 here today.
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