KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 – Malaysia is deemed to have only partial revenue transparency and is ranked 22nd — below Papua New Guinea and Indonesia — in a report on government disclosure in oil, gas and minerals management in 41 resource rich countries by Revenue Watch Institute and Transparency International.
Brazil, Norway and Russia were declared as having the highest levels of disclosure in a report released recently. Equatorial Guinea and Turkmenistan were seen as having the lowest levels of transparency.
The report noted that countries classified as having partial revenue transparency provide their citizens with information about their revenue from the extractive sector, yet have important transparency gaps in one or more specific categories of the index.
Among assessment criteria in which Malaysia scored a zero include: “Has this country adopted a rule or legislation that provides for disclosure of information in the oil, gas and mineral sectors?”, “Does a Parliamentary committee scrutinize audit reports on resource-related revenues?” and “Are government officials required to disclose information about their financial interest in any extractive activity or joint venture?”
Malaysia scored full marks for the criteria: “Does the agency (or agencies) in charge of receiving payments from resource companies have internal controls in place to monitor assets and prevent fraud?” and “Is there independent external validation of internal controls of agencies in charge of receiving payments from resource companies?”
It scored 33 marks out of a possible 100 for the criteria: “Are contracts, agreements or negotiated terms for exploration and production, regardless of the way they are granted, disclosed to the public?” and “Is the licensing process intended to be open and competitive to all interested companies?”
One of the main concerns regarding the management of oil and gas revenues is that Petronas is answerable only to the prime minister with little to no oversight.
The off-budget national oil company, which is entrusted with managing the nation’s oil and gas resources for all Malaysians, has been used in the past to help build the “extravagant” RM25 billion administrative capital Putrajaya and provide billions in subsidized natural gas to profit oriented industries.
MCA presidential council member Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn also noted in a newspaper commentary earlier this year that Petronas is seen as a “controversial white knight” and having to bail out companies such as Konsortium Perkapalan in 1997.
Taxes and dividends paid by national oil company Petronas constitute over 40 per cent of the Malaysian government’s revenue.
The dividend payout ratio in the 2010 financial year was 74 per cent of profits as compared with 57 per cent in 2008 and 39 per cent in 2006.
The growing dividend payout ratio could affect the ability for Petronas to reinvest in the coming years.
Petronas, however, has taken some recent measures to increase public disclosure.
It held its first ever quarterly results briefing this month and expects to continue doing so.
“We aim to be rigorously frugal in our decisions, ensuring transparency and abiding by self imposed corporate governance standards of international levels,” said Petronas CEO Datuk Shamsul Azhar Abbas at the quarterly results briefing.
~~ Petronas repot kepada PM jerr 
Post time 13-10-2010 10:01 AM
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