PUTRAJAYA, July 18 — The roles and functions of political secretaries to ministers will be re-evaluated, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad confirmed today.

The prime minister said the decision to do so was made after several political secretaries were found to have abused their position and given out contracts during the Barisan Nasional administration.

"The task of political secretaries is to be the mediator between Cabinet ministers and the people of their constituencies.

"But now there have been some cases where several were involved in handing out contracts, which happened in the previous government. This is not their role,” Dr Mahathir told reporters after chairing a Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption at the Prime Minister’s Office here today.

The prime minister added that during the meeting, the committee members agreed in principle to discuss the task and responsibilities of political secretaries in executing their role in their respective ministries.

After the meeting, Dr Mahathir launched a smartphone application to enable the public to report and provide feedback to 460 government agencies.

The phone app is dubbed the Respons Rakyat (RR 2.0).