Wed, 24th June 2009 - KUALA LUMPUR: The public will have a say in the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to be applied to Suhakam commissioners, unlike other government institutions and agencies.

“We are currently putting together some KPIs for certain key result areas,” said Suhakam commissioner Datuk Dr Michael Yeoh.

Under the Suhakam (Amendment) Act 2009 passed in March, the performance of Suhakam commissioners was supposed to have been assessed by KPIs to be determined by the Prime Minister. Since then, however, Suhakam was told to draft its own KPIs and it decided to do so with public input.

Earlier this month, Dr Yeoh, the chairman of the Working Group on Economic, Social, Cultural & Civil and Political Rights, was tasked by the commission to draft a list of KPIs and to lead the public consultations.

“We (commissioners) should be ready with the draft list in about a month, after which we will hold a series of discussions with various civil society organisations on it,” he said in an interview.

Suhakam chairman Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister’s Department had informed the commission that the KPIs would later be made public.

On Suhakam’s 2008 annual report which was tabled in Parliament last Monday, he said he was glad it had finally been tabled and hoped this report, unlike all the previous reports since Suhakam’s inception, would also be debated.