CM: Selangor rejects the old ‘Secrecy is Security’ paradigm

SHAH ALAM, 11 Nov: All members of the public service and staff members of subsidiary companies of the state government have been asked to practice the values of integrity, accountability and good governance in the administration.

The Chief Minister, Mohamed Azmin Ali, said that the commitment is important in interpreting the intention of the state government of seeing each of its public servants being honest, open and transparent.

“A democratic society requires smart and effective administration. Therefore, a government administration that is wise and effective requires leadership consensus.

“Therefore, the state government is rejecting the old ‘Secrecy is Security’ paradigm. Instead, the state government will uphold administration and management based on ‘Transparency is Security’,” he said.

Mohamed Azmin was speaking at the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) Subsidiary Companies’ Corporate Integrity Pledge (CIP) Signing Ceremony at the Shah Alam Convention Centre (SACC) today.

Mohamed Azmin said that ‘secrecy’ in administration can no longer be regarded as a government privilege because it causes a lot of anxiety and prejudice in society.

“Secrecy will only conceive the practice of corruption and abuse of power in a management. The state government is of the opinion that all concession agreements that involve the interests of the general public needs to be understood by stakeholders before it is signed.

“I believe that integrity starts within ourselves. If we keep supporting this principle, we will not face problems later on,” he said.

For the record, the Selangor State Assembly (DNS) has approved the Freedom of Information Act 2011 and it came into force on March 5 2013, in the interest of the civil society.

Through this enactment, the people can learn in depth the transparency of the committee meeting minutes when approving projects and status information of a particular project.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Azmin said that the State Government Council Meeting (MMKN) last week had directed the National Public Accounts Committee, or PAC, together with the Selangor State Assembly Select Committee to monitor reprimands from the Auditor General on all state departments and agencies.

“This effort was taken to ensure that everyone practices prudent governance and integrity in handling financial affairs and tendering processes,” he said.