‘Pemandu to continue with its work’

PETALING JAYA: The 30 staff members in Pemandu will continue to work as consultants for governments of other countries.

A senior officer said the entity became a private consultancy firm called Pemandu Associates Sdn Bhd in February 2017.

“Pemandu has contract to do consultancy work for the Government until February 2019. This contract involved the 30 staff members from Pemandu.

“Two days ago, the Government prematurely terminated this contract with Pemandu,” said the source.

The source added that the 30 staff members would not be affected by the contract termination because the company still had consultancy work with governments in other countries.

Pemandu was initially set up as a unit under the Prime Minister’s Department in 2009 with the task of developing the National Transformation Programme (NTP) and to coordinate its implementation.

The organisation later became a private consultancy company in 2017. The company absorbed all 133 staff members of Pemandu and went through a two-year transition of handing over its work back to the Government.

The handing over is expected to end in March 2019.

As part of the transition, the company also reduced its workforce from 133 to 45 in 2017 and 30 this year.

Datuk Seri Idris Jala is president and chief executive officer of Pemandu.