Gerakan agrees with call to cut red tape in government departments

Gerakan agrees with call to cut red tape in government departments

Cheah Soon Hai: Monitor the operation of local governments

Press statement by

Gerakan Deputy President

Dato’ Dr. Cheah Soon Hai

23 January 2014

With regards to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statements in his blog that point out the lack of transparency is the main cause that leads to corruption and he felt that government departments should cut red tape as a measure to fight corruption, Gerakan Deputy President Dato’ Dr Cheah Soon Hai threw his support behind the former Prime Minister and hoped that all government institutions can fully cooperate on that especially state governments and local governments and be more serious on cracking down corruption.

Cheah pointed out that all government departments should cut red tapes, if they fail to handle the applications and problems from the public in time, then they should provide a reasonable excuse so that the people are informed of the circumstances.

“It is important that civil servants are accountable and handle the application procedures impartially. The government should not give too much discretion power to the civil servants as this will open to power abuse and corruption. The Public should be educated on their entitled rights and the standard operating procedures of each department. It is undeniable that some of the government departments or institutions have shown efficiency in works under the Key Performance Index (KPI), the Immigration Department for instance has set a target of issuing a certain number of passports within a limited time frame. Therefore, the government should strengthen the KPI Index to ensure that all departments can meet the standards.”