KUALA LUMPUR: Some economists believe that Petroliam Nasional Bhd, Permodalan Nasional Bhd and Khazanah Nasional Bhd should be placed back under the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
Some other prefer the status quo, saying that there would be excessive power in the MoF if the trio return to its fold.
PNB, Khazanah and Petronas were removed from the MoF and consolidated under the Prime Minister’s Department during the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.
Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute’s Centre of Public Policy Studies chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said the MoF should again manage PNB, Khazanah and Petronas as it deals with the country’s budget and fiscal policy.
“It is best for the MoF to monitor government-linked companies’ (GLCs) and government investment-linked companies’ (GLICs) performances, while ensuring good governance, efficiency, sustainability and transparency,” Ramon told the New Straits Times.
He, nevertheless, said the new administration under Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should allow the private sector to participate and drive GLCs and GLICs’ growth for greater efficiency and accountability.
“Too much public sector involvement in the GLCs and GLICs will cause negative inbreeding. This is important to ensure greater competition and profitability,” he added.
Ramon said the new government must also show it has something better to the public and should not return to the old Barisan Nasional’s (BN) ways, which was mired by corruption, cronyism and nepotism.
“The present government must show the difference in administering and administrating the country, while adapting strong measures to improve the quality and performance of GLCs and GLICs,” he said.
Economist Prof Datuk Dr Rajah Rasiah agreed that the MoF would have excessive power if the trio were once again under its fold.
“Hardly anything worked in the previous government as they just replaced BN politicians with PH politicians among the directors of Khazanah and other GLICs,” he told NST.
Rajah said given the many ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department, considerable efforts can be focused on managing the trio in a more efficient and transparent manner.
“Governance involving economic bodies is not necessarily defined by just promoting anti-trust agglomerations or by promoting small medium enterprises. Scale economies are often important in certain industries - including Khazanah’s holding companies,” he added.
He said governance in such companies can be improved by stringent regulations, and by having over half of the board members from independent members, with stringent rules to prevent insider trading and collusion.
The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive officer Ali Salman said continuity in professional management, good corporate governance and minimal political interference were important for PNB, Khazanah and Petronas.
“Regardless of which ministry oversees these companies, we need comprehensive reform strategies rather than administrative reallocation from one ministry to another ministry,” he said.
Ali said it was vital for the new administration to determine which GLCs should be kept or divested.
“We need a sectoral assessment in determining whether the government wants to keep these companies or divest, privatise and open them to market competition,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ramon welcomed the appointment of former CIMB Group Holdings Bhd group chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz as Finance Minister.
He said Tengku Zafrul was well qualified but he should debunk some allegations linking him to 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) to instil confidence for both domestic and foreign investors.
“It is important for him to clear his name in relation to 1MDB. He can’t allow such allegations to be ignored,” Ramon added.