Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said the matter needed to be brought to the Cabinet before a decision could be made.

“I assigned then Treasury secretary-general Asri Hamidon to give several proposals to streamline several agencies and present them to the chief secretary to the government.

“And I will decide after it has been presented to the Cabinet,” he said in his speech at his ministry’s monthly gathering here today.

On Sept 3 last year, Anwar said the government had established a secretariat for the rationalisation of federal statutory bodies to address the issue of overlapping functions and save funds.

Anwar also said that government agencies were not allowed to establish companies beneath them without approval at the highest level.

“I have instructed that no company should be established under an agency without approval from the highest level because thousands of these companies are incurring huge losses.

“Deciding to cancel these (companies) is not easy but, if it must be done, we must do it. This reflects or gives meaning to what is called institutional reform,” he said.