Tuesday, February 13, 2018

When very High Salaries/Allowance in Government Owned/Control Companies deprives all Malaysians of monies?

IGNORANCE and INDIFFERENCE is no more an option for Malaysians. We can no longer TRUST our politicians and government/s - we need to educate ourselves, become more aware...all to stop abuses..our monies being lost...kleptocracy. 

Here, we look at how Government owned/controlled companies and GLCs may by current policy depriving Malaysians of our monies - through practices 'high wages/allowances' for some...Later articles, we will look at other dubious practices...how our money is wasted? 

"RM1.1 million for TNB CEO(20O7)...About RM2 million for MAS CEO(in 2012-13) per year"

UMNO-BN Government has been privatizing and corporatizing, and it is interesting to see how so much monies that should be paid by to the government for the benefit of ALL Malaysians are being 'wasted' through very high salary to CEOs, senior officers and Director's allowances even in government owned companies, or government linked companies. For public servants, even Prime Ministers, there is a fixed pay scale, that we all know off. Is it time for us to have laws fixing salary/income rates of CEOs,Management and staff of these companies? 
DRB HICOM is no longer owned by Malaysian Governtment?

For private companies, especially those not publicly listed, it is none of our business to complain about these high sums of monies paid to CEOs or certain staff - that it the concern of the said company's shareholders. But, for a government owned and GLC, we have a right to demand legislative controls about pay/income to these persons.

Very sad that there is very little transparency about these government and GLC companies. Very hard to even find information about these high salaries and incomes given to certain persons. There must be transparency...Paying some officers and directors too high, only affects how much we, the people of Malaysia gets back...Some of these salaries are so high - so much higher that even what the Prime Minister or Chief Judges receive.

One example was the Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) CEOs pay that came to light in 2008 (current salary and income unavailable). 
Basic salary RM600,000
Bonus RM302,000
EPF contribution RM113,280
Car allowance RM42,000
Flexible benefits RM50,000
Total RM1,107,280
Figures are from TNB’s 2007 Annual Report.
That translates to RM92,273/month for running what essentially amounts to a monopolistic service. - TNB CEO's monthly pay = 5 years pay for poor households.

What about MAS's CEOs? Information about Ahmad Jauhari Yahya - what about the CEOs now?

Mr Ahmad Jauhari’s yearly salary for 2013 was MYR1.92 million ($640,000), which looks paltry compared to the millions other CEOs rake in for their roles but compares very favourably with the median monthly Malaysian household income of MYR5000 (roughly $20,000 a year). But he made more in 2012 when his remuneration was MYR2.63 million ($878,000). - News.Com.Au, 26/7/2014

LOGICALLY - salaries should be much lower(certainly not higher than a Prime Minister or Chief Justice) for a company owned and/or controlled by the Malaysian government. 

BONUS - well that is the way to reward CEOs, COOs, Management staff and workers ...and this will depend on the PROFITS you are making for the company...hence for the government...hence for all Malaysians. Maybe, giving them 20-40% of the annual profits as bonus ...where maybe the CEO may get 30% even  from this allocated bonus(based on profits)30% shared between upper management and Directors, 40% shared amongst the rest of the workers...GOOD JOB...and 60-80% of profit flows back to government coffers...which will be used for all Malaysians.

In the case of MAS, why pay almost RM2 million in salary (possibly not yet counting  other allowances and benfits)...when MAS was a failing business ...which ultimately resulted in loss of employment for thousands...and Malaysian government pumping in even more monies??

Of course our UMNO_BN government will not be too keen to disclose this HIGH PAY AND ALLOWANCES being paid out to Employees of a Malaysian government controlled and/or owned company ....

In some countries, it is said, one way of 'siphoning' out monies for the benefit of some politicians, political parties....is by simply placing 'friendly' persons into jobs where the pay is very high, with the understanding that a certain portion will ultimately flow back to certain person/s...? In some cases, these 'high income persons' may be tasked with making 'donations' to a certain group of party members...or even making certain amount of 'donations' to the party, etc...When former Selangor Menteri Besar Selangor raised the issue of new employees with 'high' salary...I had a suspicion that this may also be happening in Selangor...well, that 'PKNS Scandal' really never got investigated..and no explanations were given ...rather the focus was changed to an issue of 'wrongful dismissal' - was it more than that?

I seriously wonder whether that is happening in Malaysia? Appoint people to 'high paying jobs that are created' - on a side understanding? 

Is this the way some of our politicians and political parties are making money - this would of course be a case of cheating us Malaysians...Profits of government owned companies must flow back to the government for the benefit of its citizens...

At present, government owned and/or controlled companies are not required to be audited by the Auditor General, and even, if audited, there is no obligation to submit that Auditor's Report to Parliament ...see what happened to the report on 1MDB ...Auditor General now, in law will only be auditing government - Federal Government, State Government, Local Government, Ministry, Departments, Agencies and  ...this report will be made PUBLIC and will also be send to Parliament(and/or State Legislative Assembly)..

After the 1MDB scandal - Selangor, Penang and Kelantan could have extended the requirement of audit be it by the Auditor General(or State Auditor) to include all State Government owned companies or GLCs, whereby the report will then be available to the Public ...and also shall be tabled at the State Legislative Assembly for debate/discussion...BUT sadly this seem to have not happened? Where is the reforms?

Thus, what happens in all these government owned companies can effectively be 'Hidden' from Malaysians. Information about the salaries/allowances/bonus...


WHAT IS NEEDED?


-A LAW that stipulates the maximum salaries/allowances that can be paid out to employees (CEO,COO and other workers)  including Director's allowances, etc >> BONUS should be linked to profits. [If public servants have a fixed pay scale, then the same for government owned/controlled companies]

- Public disclosure online, which will be easy access, of information of shareholders of Government Owned and Government Linked Companies, including information of all Directors, and CEOs. Annual profits must also be declared. - This will be useful for us all, to know when our Malaysian government owned companies are no more under our control, usually when we no longer own more than 50% shares through government owned companies and government agencies(for certain class groups) like EPF, LUTH, etc

- Auditor General shall audit all government owned and linked companies, and the said reports will be made public and be tabled in Parliament/DUN


After 1MDB - steps need to be taken to ensure such 'hanky panky' will never happen in any government owned company or GLC - New LAWs, measures need to be put in place ..

Will the Opposition be promising something...or are they simply interested to just take over government ...and maybe also later use all existing 'loop-holes' and other 'opportuniies' for self enrichment or party 'self-enrichment'..

1MDB is one thing ...we need to try and recover monies lost...we need to prosecute people who caused us so much damage...AND we must introduce new LAWs, policies, mechanisms that similar things happens not to other such companies...and there is 'leakages' flowing to some ...because then the ultimate losers will still be Malaysians...

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