KUALA LUMPUR — Less than a year after Malaysia’s landmark elections that saw a new party take power for the first time in more than six decades, the administration has been accused of failing to crack down on nepotism and cronyism in government-linked companies (GLCs) and agencies.

The Pakatan Harapan coalition unseated long-time ruling alliance the Barisan Nasional in May after running on an anti-corruption platform, highlighting financial mismanagement and graft that it alleged was running rampant in the previous administration and promising change.

However, civil society watchdogs are now accusing Pakatan Harapan of failing to enact its promised reforms in a timely manner.

The GLC Reform Cluster, a monitoring group that forms part of the 50-NGO “Platform for Reform” civil society coalition, said there had been “slow progress” in reforming GLCs.

“Instead of providing services to the rakyat (people) and securing our collective future as a nation, GLCs have been exploited as patronage mechanisms to channel contracts to politicians and well-connected businesses,” the group said in a statement.

“Some directors are also paid unjustifiably high salaries. As a result of such abuse, under Barisan Nasional, GLCs were enmeshed in numerous controversies.”

The group has called for the formation of an independent task force to oversee GLCs, scrutinise their audited reports, and put in place mechanisms to enforce accountability and transparency.

GLCs include statutory bodies, foundations, and sovereign wealth funds such as the infamous 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which is the target of a number of an ongoing money-laundering investigations that have seen charges brought against both Goldman Sachs bankers and former senior government officials.

The patronage and management of GLCs is a long-standing issue in Malaysia, particularly due to their lack of transparency.

In April last year, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad described such companies as “monsters”, saying that their original purpose of alleviating socioeconomic disparities had not been fulfilled.

More recently, there was a public outcry when the Malaysian United Indigenous Party (Bersatu), a component party of the ruling coalition, appeared to be giving preferential treatment to its own members for appointments to GLC boards, with cabinet minister Rina Harun approving such appointments from within Bersatu’s ranks.

A Bersatu member was also recently made head of a federal higher education loan body, while the daughter of a government minister from a separate party was appointed to the board of a government-owned microfinancing agency.

When the party’s youth leader Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman rejected calls for the continuation of such preferential treatment at the annual general meeting, some factions demanded his resignation.

Political economist Terence Gomez, a member of the GLC Reform Cluster who wrote a letter critical of political patronage and the way ministries had been divvied up under the new government, has also come under fire from Mahathir adviser and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin.

“What is clear, even becoming the norm, is Pakatan’s consistent message to the nation: selectively targeted patronage will continue. The primary advocate of this message is Bersatu,” Mr Gomez said, linking the practice to government efforts focused on marshalling political support among ethnic Malays.

This group, referred to as bumiputra (sons of the soil), make up the bulk of voters in Malaysia, but according to pollsters they do not overwhelmingly support the current administration.

For Mr Gomez, Bersatu is “an offshoot” of the previous ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), which positioned itself as a defender of Malay rights.

In a pointed response, Mr Daim – who heads the Council of Eminent Persons, an advisory body to the government – denied patronage in government dealings and accused Mr Gomez of conjecture, saying that the “bumiputra agenda” and the nation’s were not mutually exclusive.

“For as long as we do not solve the bumiputra issue, we can never go forward as a nation. But as the government has clarified, it will be recalibrated and everyone who needs help will be given assistance,” he said.

It is unclear how many GLCs there are in Malaysia, as no definitive catalogue of them exists. Last week, the Ministry of Economic Affairs released a list of the GLCs under its purview.

Some days later, a federal government gazette detailing ministerial oversight over agencies was released — only to be retracted hours later because of missing information.

On Twitter, opposition lawmaker Khairy Jamaluddin said the retraction was rumoured to be caused by a “turf war over certain agencies not being given to certain ministers”.

Although the list of GLCs in the government gazette was retracted, several other ministries have announced their intention to release lists of their own.

International Trade and Industry Minister Darell Leikeng has described publishing such lists as a “good idea”, while Saddiq, who is also the Youth and Sports Minister, has called for an end to patronage, more open tenders, and ‘equity culture’ in governance. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST