Special functions minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad said the 100-day KPIs were set to ensure every ministry had a clear short, medium and long-term direction.

“The KPIs are also to ensure they (ministers) work hard,” he said, adding that the ministers were evaluated based on targets set by the Cabinet.

According to Latiff, a minister’s performance plus targets set by the Cabinet accounted for 75% of the evaluation, with the remaining 25% involving public perception.

The public survey was carried out by the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu) with 190,914 respondents from Nov 1 to 15.

“The report card on the ministers with the highest and lowest score will be kept by the ‘headmaster’,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

“He just became the headmaster, so let’s give him a chance.”

Latiff was responding to Cha Kee Chin (PH-Rasah), who asked about the method of evaluation used in the 100-day KPIs as the marks were “too high”.

Cha was referring to Ismail’s announcement last week that the Cabinet achieved 90% of its 100-day targets.

“Scoring 90% is a A-plus. There is no room for improvement because humans are not able to achieve 100%,” Cha said.

He said the people were still struggling with the weak economy as the government had not resolved the issue of the rising cost of living.

“Furthermore, the steep increase in the prices of vegetables and meat also involves the transport, human resources, international trade and industry ministry, among others.”

Latiff replied that the 100-day achievement “is not a full stop, just a comma, as there are still a lot of issues that need to be tackled by the ministers and their ministries”.