Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal
KOTA KINABALU: There must be a no elements of corruption and leakage in managing government-linked companies (GLCs) in Sabah as these could affect their reputation and performance, whereas their role is to develop the state’s economy for the well-being of the people.
In reminding this, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said these GLCs should be free of any elements of corruption, besides ensuring transparency and accountability in their management and administration.
He said the Sabah GLCs should also learn lessons from what happened to some of the national GLCs due to the scourge of corruption, leaving them with a high amount of debts.
“GLCs were set up to play an active role in realising economic and infrastructural development, and providing jobs for the people. However, we see a number of GLCs having gone astray and embroiled in corruption, for example, Tabung Haji and Felda.
“All this should serve as a lesson for us, for corruption not to occur in the Sabah GLCs such as SLDB (Sabah Land Development Board), Sabah Foundation and Sawit Kinabalu as they were all established to develop Sabah and assist the poor communities, including in education.”
Mohd Shafie said this to reporters after opening a one-day forum on the governance of Sabah institutions and renewal in GLCs, organised by the Institute For Development Studies (Sabah).
He said the current state government would work at returning the original role of the state GLCs which had been established on the right track, to ensure no elements of corruption and leakage present.
“This started with the restructuring of Sabah Foundation and the state’s timber sector through the ban on the export of timber logs and logging activities, besides tightening law enforcement at the ports to prevent the export of timber logs,” he said.
The chief minister said efforts to curb corruption were also carried out in the government departments including the Sabah Water Department, with each development project to be managed and maintained by the state government to ensure greater transparency.
Mohd Shafie said the state government was also now restructuring a number of GLCs in Sabah, especially companies that were not proactive and experiencing losses due to very high operational cost.
However, he said, the services of the staff of any GLC wound up, would not be terminated but they would instead be transferred to other GLCs. — Bernama