The Morons at Proton

It is good that the new Proton board has revealed all the sordid details of how the previous board had been “hoodwinked” by their management into acquiring a company over which the majority shareholder had little control over operations and financial matters.

As Proton has lost so much of their investment, they should spend a little more and try to establish if any of the top management or directors can be sued for negligence or criminal liability.

It would seem that organising funds transfer disguised as spare parts supply arrangement cannot be accepted as good management practice especially if the exercise was intended to mislead the directors.

One further comment about the Malaysian GLCs. Many of the boards are made up of retired civil servants and some of them have been around for too long. I suggest that all directors should not be appointed after the age of 65. To prevent the Proton type of scandal, the BoD of all GLCs should have 30% of the members drawn from the private sector and no person should hold more than three directorships.

Image: from the Star