Where have all our values gone?

The sale of land by 1MDB to Tabung Haji is one in a long line of dubious transactions for which no-one assumes accountability

COMMENT

By K Haridas

Where is the accountability, transparency and integrity within our civil service and government institutions?

Valuation reports being used to hike up prices is not new. We’ve seen this happen with the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) fiasco.

So how can the Ministry of Finance sell land to 1MDB for about RM75 per square foot (psf)?

You can rationalise that this was the rate for 70 acres. However there must be a value correlation if 1.56 acres can be sold after four years for RM2779 psf.

Surely there must be a sound basis for such transactions and those responsible for the earlier sale must likewise be held accountable.

Did this more recent sale attract Real Property Gains Tax as the deal was not beyond five years? These facts must be checked and made public.

Unless a strong culture of accountability is instilled, we will just have more and more such cases. The worst part is that we do not seem to learn, instead leaping from one scandal to another, the next always of greater proportion, cost and national embarrassment.

Civil servants seem to allow politicians to ride roughshod over them.

Where is their sense of self respect and honour? Only when they are held accountable will they wake up and realise their own failures.

If you follow the Auditors Report, you will notice that time and again we have had serious cases and no insistence on accountability.

The turbulence lasts for a week or so before matters are swept under the carpet.

To begin with, the Chief Secretary, the Secretaries-General and Directors-General must be held accountable and answerable. They get very good salaries, perks and offices at Putrajaya and seem to believe that all who work in these ivory towers are protected.

The Civil Service protects its own kind — hence the innate confidence that they can get away with whatever they need to. The Official Secrets Act further insulates them and is a licence for stealthy greed.

The Malaysian Institute of Integrity does outstanding work and can work with our public sector.

There is training that leads to the award of Certificates for Integrity Officers.

But how will such institutions have an influence when top civil servants and the politicians act in such an irresponsible manner?

We talk about corruption, collusion and the lack of integrity. The 1MDB sale and the Tabung Haji (TH) purchase stinks of all these.

Now we are told that Prime Minister Najib Razak had already directed TH to dispose of the property purchased.

The purchase itself is plagued with conflict of interest with a certain individual holding top positions in both TH and 1MDB.

Have they acted in keeping with the Vision, Mission and Values of TH?

In her book ‘Wilful Blindness’, Margaret Heffernan highlights the 2006 case of the US Government vs Enron where those responsible failed to highlight the corruption that was unfolding before their own eyes.

In the end not knowing was no more a defence. The guilty verdict sent shivers down the spine of the corporate world and beyond.

Here, in this case the civil servants, GLC executives and senior management pay scant regard to issues of integrity.

TH will now dispose of this property.

But with such a quick resale, would this second transaction not again attract the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) which would be in the region of 25-30% on the appreciation?

One can only imagine that the Finance Minister will then step in to authorise an exemption justifying this sub-sale.

Do profits justify wrong decisions?

The fiasco will continue unless immediate steps are taken and those involved are held accountable. What message is the Government sending to both the public and private sectors?

The PM and Finance Minister is fighting for his survival and one bad decision is followed by another. This cannot continue at the expense of the nation.

The time has come for the ‘Third Force’ to take the initiative and lodge a motion of no confidence on the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister.

Tengku Razaleigh should be given this opportunity. He was a former Finance Minister and has both experience, capacity and capability to make a difference. He would be the best person to initiate a series of dialogues on critical and fundamental issues to get our nation back on track.

We need to strengthen our democratic institutions and bring back accountability to institutions like the Judiciary, the Police Force, Education Ministry, the A-G’s Chambers, Suhakam, PAC and the Election Commission to mention just a few.

A bipartisan group should be involved so that the best interests of the nation is considered.

We cannot continue as we are.

K. Haridas is an FMT reader.

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