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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