KPDNKK will review Cooperatives Act 1993: Hamzah Zainuddin
KUALA LUMPUR: The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry (KPDNKK) will review the Cooperatives Act 1993 (Amendment 2007) (Act 502) to ensure cooperatives in the country have a better role to play to develop the national economy.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin said the move was aimed at ensuring the future of the progressive cooperatives by boosting their professionalism and image.
In addition, he said the review on the act was also to ensure that the cooperatives to be set up in the future would be in accordance with the needs of the communities and not for individual interests.
"We want to ensure that when they set up a cooperative, they understand why it is set up. They must give the required masterplan, then only set up the cooperative in accordance with the plan.
"They cannot (set up cooperatives) as they wish to get grants from the government. We want the setting up of a cooperative to be in line with the needs of the local community," he told a media conference after chairing the Second National Cooperatives Consultative Council Meeting here today.
According to Hamzah, the review would also look at improvements on corporate governance of cooperatives to ensure they were managed well and smoothly.
He said this would be done by appointing a licensed cooperative secretary who is accredited by the Malaysian Cooperatives Commission (SKM) compared to currently whereby a cooperative secretary is appointed from among members of the cooperative.
In addition, KPDNKK would also review the period of time someone is a member of the board of directors of a cooperative as currently there were those who were board members for 20 years.
"We are also studying to tighten the criteria for the setting up of credit cooperatives to ensure they are not used by Ah Long (loan sharks) as platforms to give loans.
“To date, we have 117 credit cooperatives. So, we will study to determine if we need all of them or there should be mergers. To date, we have closed and cancelled 22 credit cooperative licences," he added.
Hamzah said the results of the review would be tabled at the Dewan Rakyat sitting next year. — Bernama