UNDERSTANDING THE RELEVANCE OF KPI

Azmin and six others flunk KPI test

February 21, 2011 If the KPI ratings are implemented, says a source, the seven PKR MPs will be dropped as candidates for the coming general election.

GEORGE TOWN: PKR deputy president Azmin Ali was among the seven party MPs allegedly classified as “non-performing elected representatives”.

According to a source, this was the findings of an external audit report prepared by a special committee on an internal Key Performance Index (KPI) early last year.

The special committee was headed by supreme council member Nik Mahmood Nik Hassan.

The source said that if the KPI ratings were implemented, Azmin, who is the Gombak MP, and the rest should be dropped as candidates in the coming general election.

The other MPs on the list were Indera Mahkota’s Azan Ismail, Telok Kemang’s Kamarul Baharin Abbas, Kuala Langat’s Abdullah Sani, Petaling Jaya Selatan’s Hee Loy Sian, Balik Pulau’s Yusmadi Yusoff and Kelana Jaya’s Loh Gwo-Burne.

“These incumbent parliamentarians are said have rarely ‘turun padang’ (gone to the ground) to meet constituents, let alone address their problems. The MPs are accused of being aloof and lacking the grassroots’ touch. Certain MPs don’t even have service centres,” said the source.

The KPI was outlined in the second half of 2009 by Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh and her team when she was the party training director before being appointed election director last year.

She and her team were also instrumental in outlining the party candidate selection criteria (CSC) to pick future election candidates.

Fuziah, who is now party vice-president, told FMT that she and her team formulated different types of KPI and CSC for PKR MPs, state legislators and councillors.

“The KPI and CSC were all based on international standards. We created them to push the bar higher to derive top performance from our reps. We wanted to show Malaysians that PKR is serious in bringing about the desired change in the country’s governance,” she said.

However, she declined to comment on Nik Mahmood’s audit report and its findings.

Fuziah and her team had persuaded the leadership to accept both the KPI and CSC as yardsticks to vet party candidates for federal and state seats in the next general election.

The KPI and CSC were crafted in response to rapidly growing criticisms that PKR elected reps did not meet the mark. Both lists were made available to FMT.

The MPs’ KPI concerned the incumbents’ skills in parliamentary debates, effectiveness of constituency service and grassroots rapport.

The KPI also measured their efficiency in organising outreach programmes to resolve constituency problems.

It also monitored MPs’ role in the development of party politics in their respective areas such as membership drives, grooming young leaders and voter registration.

However, the source claimed that the move was not well received by certain “non-performers”.

Fuziah then mediated a dialogue session between Merbok MP Rashid Din, who represented PKR parliamentarians and Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul, who represented party parliamentary whip Azmin to end the stalemate.

Finally a compromise was reached when all parties concurred that the KPI was imperative for PKR’s political development.

Report submitted to Wan Azizah

Following this, the PKR leadership accepted the KPI and CSC. This led to the independent audit committee headed by Nik Mahmood to be formed to monitor the MPs’ performance based on the KPI.

FMT learnt that Nik Mahmood had submitted a confidential audit report detailing the performance ratings of each PKR MP to party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

The report also labelled PKR’s defected MPs – Wee Choo Kiong (Wangsa Maju), Tan Tee Beng (Nibong Tebal), Zahrain Mohamed Hashim (Bayan Baru), Zulkifli Nordin (Kulim-Bandar Baharu), Mohsin Fadzli Samsuri (Bagan Serai) and Gobala Krishnan (Padang Serai) – as “non-performers”.

According to the source, the audit findings could have triggered the defection given that the MPs foresaw the axe coming in the next election.

“It’s up to the non-performing incumbents to improve their ratings between now and next election,” he said.

• Meanwhile, the CSC required an aspiring candidate to possess a clean image, good communication skills, especially in written and spoken Malay, English and, if possible, other languages.
• The aspiring candidate must also pass the test on soft skills and matters pertaining to services and competency.
• The CSC also demanded a candidate to be of sound mind, loyal, and most importantly, declare links with other parties, especially Barisan Nasional.
• The candidates were also required to declare their past and present civil and criminal cases if any and their financial independence.
• Those with a previous conviction, having been fined RM2,000 or imprisoned for two years or more, would be rejected.
• The passing mark was between 50% and 55%. Parliamentary candidates and state executive councillors must score 55% while state assembly candidates needed 50%.
• Candidates for both federal and state seats in Sabah and Sarawak would only need 50% due to a shortage in talent.

After last year’s party polls, the source claimed that Azmin had removed vice-president Fuziah from her role as party election director.

He said the leadership issued Fuziah an ultimatum – “choose between being an elected vice-president and election director”.

“Pushed to a corner, she chose to be a vice-president,” he added.

By virtue of being the party’s new election director, Azmin also heads the candidate selection committee.

Although officially the KPI and CSC were accepted as valid benchmarks by the party to select future candidates, the source said both would be discarded soon.

“With tacit support from party supremo Anwar Ibrahim, Azmin will have a free hand to choose the candidates,” he added.