Time to reform GLCs, Nazir says after more politicians made board members

KUALA LUMPUR – Government-linked companies (GLCs) need to reform as they are on a dangerous trajectory, said Bank Pembangunan Malaysia Bhd chairman Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, after more politicians are appointed as board members of such companies.

“We must set a tone for the organisation. If you don’t have leaders with the right experience, expertise and motivation, you will have problems, especially when you have leaders who are concerned only about personal popularity and dishing out jobs or contracts.

“The organisation can quickly rot, and we have seen many examples in the past, there are plenty of them.

“If I were to relook at it, I would have a framework where we redefine GLCs into four groups – GLCs, GICs (government investment companies), TGCs (temporary government companies) and government companies,” he said in an online forum titled “Battling the Crisis: The Role of GLCs” today.

Nazir said the federal government needs to have multiple exit strategies in preparation for the country to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The national recovery plan that will be presented to the National Security Council this week should provide some clarity on the actions that the government has in store, he added.

However, he said he hopes that Putrajaya does not bank on merely the vaccination drive and aim to achieve herd immunity by August.

“Judging by what is happening in the United Kingdom, you will have a real risk of the virus mutating to a point where the vaccine is not as effective as we thought.

“We have already seen that the herd immunity level needs to be 85% to 90%, (much more) than the original 70%. The government needs multiple exit strategies, including tracking, tracing and isolation.

“Perhaps there is room for us to look at the capacity of GLCs because, ultimately, they are government entities.

“The government has been talking about its limited capacity a lot, and I agree that it has limited capacity, but whether there are additional capacities in GLCs, we do not know.”

Nazir raised a question to the government: “Can the government raise more money by quickly coming up with new taxation schemes on the private sector to pay for more government intervention to fight against the pandemic?”

As we know, “capacity is driven by income and revenue”, he added. – The Vibes, June 14, 2021