INTERVIEW Setting up a strong parliamentary committee on defence is the first step required to clean up Malaysia's defence procurement , often haunted by dubious purchases and inferior equipment, according to an international expert in that field.

In the second part of a three-part interview with Malaysiakini, Mark Pyman, Director of Defence and Security Programme, Transparency International UK (TI-UK), proposed a package of initiatives to kick off reforms in Malaysian defence procurement:

  • Set up a bi-partisan parliamentary committee on defence.
  • Defence Ministry to publish more information on procurement.
  • Civil society to push for more detail from budget on defense procurement.
  • Government to include the integrity of defence procurement in its transformation programme.

The parliamentary defence committee - a norm in parliamentary democracies - is one of the two basic structures in holding the defence ministry to account, said Pyman.

He explained that the committee has four basic functions: examine the formulation of new defence policies, being expert in defence budget, scrutinising the ministry's acquisition plans, and ensuring the ministry keeps expenditure within the limits prescribed by its plan and budget.

NONEAccording to Pyman, (right) the committee could be the answer to the absence of defence experts among lawmakers, one of the major problems faced by the Malaysian Parliament in encouraging meaningful and fruitful debate on defence issues.

"It's not as difficult as it sounds. It's part of a normal parliamentary function which is just spending against plan, and that does not need any particularly special expertise.

"Usually, over the course of a period of years, a number of MPs just do become expert in the subject... some MPs just get to really understand the subject.

"The defence ministry should recognise it's in its interest to ensure the MPs are reasonably knowledgeable otherwise you can get a lot of noise and questions about some stupid issues that are genuinely stupid and small... So you may well find the ministry asking the MPs to come in for briefing sessions," he added.

Pyman, a former chief financial officer of international oil and gas giant Shell, has been advising various countries on building the integrity of their defense and security forces since he took over the TI-UK post in 2004.

He also sits in the UK's Office of Government Commerce (OGC), an independent office of the treasury to help the UK government deliver best value for its spending.

Strong audit body essential

Pyman gave an interview to Malaysiakini on Thursday during his one-week visit to Malaysia to attend a conference on reducing corruption in security and defence this morning organised by Transparency International Malaysia Chapter (TI-M).

Another typical body to ensure monitor defence procurement in a parliamentary democracy is a strong audit body, said Pyman, which is equivalent to the Auditor-General's Department.

azlanHowever, he observed that some countries found out that things still go wrong with these two bodies, hence the need to have external independent overseer either a permanent structure like an ombudsman or an ad-hoc panel for major procurement.

"Mexico for example has done this rather well, and they pick the most important and sensitive 10 or 15 procurements each year and then they use a respected and independent person, for example a professor of engineering at the main university, to act as an independent person for the procurements," he elaborated.

On the part of civil society, apart from demanding the authorities for more information, Pyman stressed that the defence ministry should allow civil society participation in the development of security policy.

He gave the example of South Africa where interest groups and NGOs were consulted in the formulation of defence policy after the collapse of apartheid.

 

Tomorrow: Middleman and direct negotiation - the corruption recipe in defence procurement


Part 1: Najib urged to include defence transparency in GTP