KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 — The Prime Minister is seen as the ‘best leader’ to shoulder the duty of Finance Minister, in line with his heavy responsibility of ensuring transparency in the country’s procurement procedure, said Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
He said under the Unity Government, the duty of rejuvenating the national economy lies not only with the Finance Ministry but is shared among the relevant ministries and all ministers, which is unlike the practice of previous administrations.
“Actually, the jurisdiction of the Finance Minister concerns fiscal management. Previously, the mistake was that the Finance Minister centralised everything unto himself and could not do it. Now, in terms of his work allocation, a major part of economic planning and medium- and long-term policies is determined by the Economy Ministry.
”Implementation is then jointly undertaken with ministries with the mandate and governance responsibility because the Finance Minister is responsible for ensuring that the procurement process is truly transparent. That is why in my opinion, the best leader to be Finance Minister is the Prime Minister,” he said during a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said this when replying to a supplementary question from Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (PN-Pagoh), who asked whether it was time for the Prime Minister to appoint a full-time Finance Minister because the country’s economic recovery process had allegedly failed.
Rafizi said under the current administration, the country had for the first time in years achieved economic growth for three consecutive quarters, the lowest poverty rate and higher salary increase.
“So how could Pagoh claim that the people have no confidence? We can see that confidence is being restored, including through the entry of investments,” he said.
Rafizi asked Muhyiddin not to misuse and ride on the name of the people and investors to claim that the country’s economic recovery process had failed.
He said the Unity Government’s achievements in economic growth could not be matched by Muhyiddin when he was the Prime Minister under Perikatan Nasional (PN), which ruled the country for 33 months.
Rafizi said the current government had inherited structural economic problems from the previous administration.
“We also had problems in the labour market. When was the last time the previous government really focused on labour market reforms? When was the last time we discussed the issues of salary and higher-paying jobs?” he said.
