National Service Training Department director-general Kamaruddin Mohamed Baria was today named as the new 'head of administration' to oversee administrative matters in Parliament.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz made the announcement at a press conference held at the Parliament's lobby this afternoon. He said the appointment only involved a single administrative post and no new department or office would be set up.

Parliamentarians and civil societies had feared that the establishment of the department or office to oversee administrative matters - as proposed by Nazri last week - could be a threat to the doctrine of separation of powers and would erode parliamentary independence.

Nazri denied that he had said a Parliament department or office would be established and blamed the media for the mix-up.


He explained today that under the new structure, the head of administration's position would be parallel to the Secretaries of the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara.

"The trio are all answerable to the speakers of the respective Houses. If there is any conflict over allocation of duties, they should refer to the Standing Orders," Nazri said.

The minister said Kamaruddin, 52, will be reporting for duty tomorrow morning. He did not say who would replace the latter at the NS Training Department.

Same salary scale

To a question, Nazri said the transfer of Kamaruddin should not be deemed as a demotion. He said Kamaruddin's salary will fall under 'Superscale B' and would be equivalent to that of a director-general.

The salaries of the two Secretaries are lower as they are under 'Superscale C' salary scheme.

Asked whether the new post was consistent with his earlier justification that he needed more officers to implement moves to make Parliament more efficient, Nazri replied in the affirmative.

"I have always been working very closely with the Speaker, but sometimes when members of Parliament (MPs) bring up some issue, for example the toilets, I cannot be talking to him about that.

"Now, for anything which concerns the Dewan Negara, I can go to the Dewan Negara secretary [...] and for anything concerning the Dewan Rakyat, I can go to the Dewan Rakyat secretary.

"And with the new post, for things concerning the Parliament building, maintenance, planning and select committees, I can now go to the head of the administration," he said.

The appointment of Kamaruddin comes in the wake of Nazri's clarification yesterday that he had not intended to set up a Parliament Department as reported earlier.

He had said the media had misconstrued his statement by mixing up the small 'j' in 'jabatan' to the capital 'J' which meant a full-fledged department.

He also said the post of 'director-general' needed to be re-designated to avoid further confusion.

More clarifications

Nazri nevertheless made further clarifications today by arguing that when he said the government intended to create a Parliament office, was referring to a government post and not an office per se.

"I was taught in the English medium, that's why I usually think in English first and then translate into Bahasa Malaysia. When I said office, I meant 'jawatan' (post), not the real 'pejabat' (office)."

The minister drew laughter from reporters when he emphasised that this time around the term 'head of administration' would be spelt with a capital 'H'.

Nazri said the new post would not pose a threat to the doctrine of the separation of powers among the legislative, judiciary and the executive.

"The Cabinet reaffirms our respect to the doctrine of the separation of powers [..] the Cabinet has never done anything that infringes on it," he said.