I always believe that a good debate is likely to bring out points that otherwise would have been missed.
While Strait Mat’s letter in Malaysiakini, Stupendous profits for Petronas' option holders http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/85319/ tried to refute an earlier letter by So’od of Kg Dusun, I wish to add that So’od’s example seems too simplistic. What came to my mind when I first read his letter was the fact that Petronas produces higher grades crude oil, which are exported and imports lower grades for our local refineries. I am sure the prices are different which would have made a difference to the calculations.
Having read those letters and some comments, I have personally come to my own conclusion, based on uncorroborated facts, that:
1. Petronas is well managed but lacks transparency. Someone had rightly pointed out that it would have been disastrous if Petronas’s management were answerable to a board of directors comprising 222 MPs of Parliament!
2. On the other hand, there should have been some control by Parliament instead of PM alone, on major policies especially when it is obvious that management has deteriorated at any time in the future.
3. For transparency, either its management needs to reveal more, which may require PM’s approval, or someone needs to take it up as a dissertation project to gather all relevant data, collate and analyse them to form an opinion for an information starved public. If necessary someone with depth of knowledge in the industry should take up the challenge to do some investigative journalism work. Again, it is a question of who to trust in our present environment, not the auditor, not even the ACA!
4. Petronas should be answerable to Parliament where it involves spending mega bucks, which hitherto had been the privilege of the immediate past PM, and now the present, by virtue of Sections 2 and 3 of the Petroleum Development Act, 1974. I believe this is the crux of the public’s complaints because of the huge amounts involved and obvious disregard for ordinary folks whose lives are directly affected by fuel prices.
By the time we are ready with the right balance of control and accountability, the oil would have been depleted!
While Strait Mat’s letter in Malaysiakini, Stupendous profits for Petronas' option holders http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/85319/ tried to refute an earlier letter by So’od of Kg Dusun, I wish to add that So’od’s example seems too simplistic. What came to my mind when I first read his letter was the fact that Petronas produces higher grades crude oil, which are exported and imports lower grades for our local refineries. I am sure the prices are different which would have made a difference to the calculations.
Having read those letters and some comments, I have personally come to my own conclusion, based on uncorroborated facts, that:
1. Petronas is well managed but lacks transparency. Someone had rightly pointed out that it would have been disastrous if Petronas’s management were answerable to a board of directors comprising 222 MPs of Parliament!
2. On the other hand, there should have been some control by Parliament instead of PM alone, on major policies especially when it is obvious that management has deteriorated at any time in the future.
3. For transparency, either its management needs to reveal more, which may require PM’s approval, or someone needs to take it up as a dissertation project to gather all relevant data, collate and analyse them to form an opinion for an information starved public. If necessary someone with depth of knowledge in the industry should take up the challenge to do some investigative journalism work. Again, it is a question of who to trust in our present environment, not the auditor, not even the ACA!
4. Petronas should be answerable to Parliament where it involves spending mega bucks, which hitherto had been the privilege of the immediate past PM, and now the present, by virtue of Sections 2 and 3 of the Petroleum Development Act, 1974. I believe this is the crux of the public’s complaints because of the huge amounts involved and obvious disregard for ordinary folks whose lives are directly affected by fuel prices.
By the time we are ready with the right balance of control and accountability, the oil would have been depleted!
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