Friday's press comment by Mokhtar Dahalan, Selangor state exco chairman on local government and housing, that there were no irregularities in the appointment of the daughter of Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) president to an administrative post in the council, is most irresponsible and reflects his disregard for the practice of integrity in government administration. It also smacks of a cover-up job.

It was reported by the Malay Mail that council president Bakaruddin Othman last month had failed to leave a board meeting where a discussion was held on whether to hire his daughter, Intan Liana.

It is an insult to our intelligence to say that the reason Bakaruddin was unable to excuse himself from the meeting, in which he has a conflict of interest, was because he was in a hurry. This is nothing more than a childish excuse.

It does not hold water to say that Bakaruddin was not involved in the interview and selection process of aspiring candidates, and therefore the conflict of interest does not arise.

Bakaruddin, as a senior government officer, should know that MPS is a small statutory body where the president has the final authority on many matters, one of which is human resource. He gets to decide on matters like staff confirmation in service, annual salary increment, attendance in courses, promotion and disciplinary actions.

In an organisation of this size, the hierarchical layers are also limited - meaning that interaction between the president and subordinate staff is close, if not very close. I know this because I was once the president of a small local government.

In such an organisational setting, the president will be caught in many situations of conflict of interest if his relatives were to be employed, regardless of whether he is involved in staff selection. If this is allowed to happen, the integrity of the council president will always be questioned and this would adversely affect staff morale and the credibility of the organisation.

A president possessing wisdom would prefer to discourage relative from working as his subordinates in an organisation which uses public funds.

To me, what Bakaruddin has done is to discredit and blemish the reputation and tradition of the administrative and diplomatic service where he comes from.