KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Resources Ministry (MOHR) should be the sole authority responsible in handling foreign workers.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) M. Kula Segaran said it is inefficient and counterproductive to put two ministries in charge of this matter.
Kula Segaran, who is a former human resource minister to how foreign workers are being handled by both MOHR and the Home Ministry.
He said overlapping responsibilities are one of the loopholes that allows for corruption.
He also called for the immediate establishment of a task force dedicated to implementing the recommendations outlined in the recently declassified foreign worker management report.
The report was prepared by an independent committee when Kula Segaran was still the minister. It was initially withheld from public access in early 2019 and was published on MOHR's website on Oct 13.
"The independent committee on foreign workers, produced a report explicitly stating that the Human Resources Ministry should be the sole authority responsible for handling foreign workers.
"It is evident that the wheel does not need to be reinvented; we have a well-documented solution at our disposal. To address this issue, I strongly advocate for the immediate establishment of a task force dedicated to implementing the recommendations outlined in the aforementioned report.
"This task force should comprise experts, stakeholders, and representatives from relevant sectors to ensure a swift and effective execution of the proposed measures," he said in a statement.
He said having a singular authority in the form of the Human Resources Ministry in this matter aligns with international best practices which would undoubtedly result in a more efficient, transparent and cohesive system.
His comments came after current Human Resources Minister Steven Sim announced that he would meet Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail to discuss policy improvements related to foreign workers.
This is in the wake of an incident on Dec 20 in which 171 Bangladeshis marched to file a report after claiming that their agents had failed to provide them with jobs after three to six months.
The workers were detained on the same day and handed over to the immigration department for overstaying but had valid documents.
Sim said his ministry was probing the matter and would summon the agents involved and employers mentioned in the foreigners' documents.