KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): The government is finalising the State-Owned Enterprises Bill to tighten the regulation, governance and financial management of government bodies and agencies, with the aim of having it tabled and passed in the Dewan Rakyat this year.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the legislation is important to ensure that government bodies and agencies, including Bumiputera-related entities, are subject to stricter rules to prevent irregularities that could result in losses amounting to billions of ringgit.

“Insya-Allah, we will table the State-Owned Enterprises Bill to strengthen oversight and ensure more robust regulations.

“Hopefully, we can pass it this year so that all government agencies will be subject to stricter rules,” he said during question time in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday.

He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Dr Zaliha Mustafa (Pakatan Harapan-Sekijang), who sought clarification on measures taken by the government and the Finance Ministry to tighten financial procedures, particularly those involving the approval of large-scale investments by government-linked companies and government-linked investment companies.

The prime minister said the government hopes the new law would strengthen accountability among government bodies and agencies and ensure that public assets and funds are managed in accordance with stricter governance standards.

On weaknesses in the due diligence process for a Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP) investment in Jakarta, Indonesia, Anwar said the issue was partly influenced by the tendency to follow international investment trends and reliance on major institutions such as SoftBank.

He said that although the due diligence process and scrutiny by the investment committee before a proposal was brought before KWAP’s board were systematic and stringent, weaknesses had nevertheless occurred in the case.

Anwar said the government had learnt from the matter and would tighten existing regulations to ensure that investment decisions involving public funds are made more carefully and do not rely solely on the decisions or investment preferences of international investors.

“In safeguarding the people’s money entrusted to us, there must be even stricter processes. Frankly, I consider the process stringent, but in this case, they felt that because they were relying on SoftBank, it was unlikely that the institution would invest so carelessly.

“But that is what happened. Relying on several international agencies and institutions from Japan and Europe to guide us is not necessarily the right approach,” he said.

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