Why were PNB, Khazanah removed from MOF, asks Gomez

Addressing a hall full of politicians, business leaders and foreign dignitaries in Parliament, academic Edmund Terence Gomez today questioned Pakatan Harapan’s management of GLCs and GLICs.

Speaking at the inaugural Malaysian Economic Symposium this morning, he argued that GLCs and GLICs had over the years been misused to further the interests of politicians.

Before the GE14, Gomez recalled how Harapan had promised a slew of institutional reforms including not allowing politicians to serve on the boards of GLCs and GLICs.

The coalition had also promised that the prime minister and finance minister would not be one person as had been a practice in the past under the BN administration.

“After the election, since the prime minister could not be the finance minister, what happened was that important institutions such as PNB and Khazanah, clearly the two most important GLICs in the country, were taken out (of the MOF) and transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department.

“Why was such a decision made?” he asked.

Gomez also queried why companies and agencies previously under the MOF were transferred to a specially created ministry which was the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

“It’s not like we don’t have enough ministries already, so why create another ministry?

“The Economic Affairs Ministry to my mind is the Economic Planning Unit. Who decided that these transfers should transpire?” he questioned.

[More to follow] - Mkini