Two more Putrajaya men with relatives in the office

Relatives of some members of the Najib administration are on government payroll, in direct conflict with Putrajaya’s directive that these family members can only work in parliamentary constituencies.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim (pic) has a daughter working in his office while Agriculture and Agro-based Industry deputy minister Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s son-in-law works for him.

Shahidan declined to comment when asked by The Malaysian Insider.

"Nobody is talking about this and I also don't want to talk about it," he said when met at the Prime Minister's Department's Hari Raya open house in Putrajaya yesterday.

When pressed if his daughter Nur Shafizah was his principal private secretary, a "gazetted position", Shahidan repeatedly said he did not want to talk about it.

"People should stop finding fault with me. I am already having a tough time in Parliament," he said.

Tajuddin also refused to admit or deny that his son-in-law, Firdaus Mufazal Faiz, was working with him.

“They don’t know head or tail. This is cheap politics,” responded Tajuddin.

The employment of relatives in “gazetted positions” came to light after Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Aziz drew flak for purportedly employing his son Muhammad Nedim to work in the ministry, triggering complaints of nepotism and cronyism.

However, Nazri clarified that his son, Nedim, had no official appointment as special officer with the ministry but was only working for him to serve youths in his parliamentary constituency of Padang Rengas in Perak.

He had said Nedim was not on the government payroll and was being paid by him.

In response to the criticisms against Nazri, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said there was no problem with a minister or a member of the government administration recruiting a family member as his aide if it did not involve any payment of salary or allowance by the government.

"If such an aide is hired by the minister and gets paid by the government, it is not allowed.

"But if the work is carried out on a voluntary basis and the aide is not a member of the minister's office, we have no objection to this. (It's okay if) he assists in the programmes and does not involve any payment to him by the government," the prime minister had said.

Najib also said administration members could hire their relatives for constituency work. – August 22, 2013.