Will Ministers be required to submit to KPIs, will there be a regular Ministerial KPI reports to Parliament and who are the Super-Ministers monitoring the ministers

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Thursday): The announcement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that the ministers in the reshuffled Cabinet would be monitored by a committee which would submit reports to him is most unprecedented.

If true, it will be the first time that there will be such a Ministers’  monitoring committee, raising questions whether the Ministers will be required to submit to KPIs (key performance indicators), whether there will be a regular Ministerial KPI reports to Parliament and who are the Super-Ministers who will be monitoring the ministers.

Abdullah said Cabinet Ministers should be serious in making the Ninth Malaysia Plan a success and any Minister who could not deliver should quit.

Shouldn’t Abdullah also be telling the Cabinet Ministers to be serious in delivering his reform and integrity pledges and that  Ministers who could not spearhead and provide leadership example in a reform and integrity campaign in their respective Ministries should also quit?

The Prime Minister made the  reform and integrity pledges when he became Prime Minister and it was  the mandate which  he sought in the 2004 general election which the people responded by giving him a landslide electoral victory and an  unprecedented 92% parliamentary majority – and reform and integrity should underpin the Ninth Malaysia Plan which he is to table in Parliament next month.

I had yesterday proposed that if the Prime Minister is still serious about his reform and integrity pledges he  should designate one of his Ministers with the specific  responsibility on reform and integrity to deliver his  electoral mandate and reform pledges, who will oversee reform and integrity programmes and progress in every Ministry.

Normally, such oversight should be exercised by the Prime Minister personally, but Abdullah  seems to have his hands full in having to cope with three Ministries – the Prime Minister’s Department, the Finance Ministry and the Internal Security Ministry – to the extent that he is unable to do full justice to anyone of them.

Will the Ministers’ monitoring committee that he mentioned yesterday be exercising oversight function over the reform and integrity commitment of every Minister and the progress in every Ministry – and will this be reported regularly to Parliament?

As a first step to demonstrate that he means business and wants all his Ministers to be performers who can deliver, he should give a public report  on the achievements of the 17-month appointment of Datuk Seri Effendi Norwawi as Higher Education Envoy with Cabinet rank – now that Effendi has been elevated further as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department with special responsibility to be the dynamo behind the implementation of the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

The announcement of Effendi’s appointment as Higher Education Envoy was made in August 2004 and his duties were specified as  “to promote the country as a hub of education” which  included “meeting with foreign academicians and government leaders to plan collaboration in education and seek bilateral initiatives in research and development”. 

It will be a good start for a performance-oriented Cabinet after the reshuffle for a full public report to be made on what Effendi had achieved in his 17 months as Higher Education Envoy with Ministerial rank in promoting Malaysia as an international hub of educational and academic excellence.

(17/02/2006)