KUALA LUMPUR: Umno Supreme Council member Isham Jalil has cautioned against making the cabinet too small as this could possibly burden individual ministers with too heavy a workload.
Isham, in an interview with Astro Awani, said 28 should be the ideal number of ministers in the upcoming cabinet as a lower number would require the restructuring of several ministries.
"If we put too much control or jurisdiction under one minister due to the merging of ministries, (the implementation of) checks and balances won't be effective then," said the Umno information chief last night.
He added that ministers had discretion powers under secondary legislation, laws drafted by ministers using the authority granted to them by a parliamentary act.
He said it made no sense to reduce the cabinet line-up if the number of civil servants remained untouched.
Last week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the unity government led by him would see a smaller cabinet.
The Pakatan Harapan chairman said the cabinet would also propose for ministers' salaries to be reduced.
He said the formation of the cabinet would depend on the parties in the unity government, which would propose the names for the cabinet.
