KUALA LUMPUR – Unfavourable responses by Malaysians surveyed by Transparency International (TI) has prompted the Public Accounts Committee to call up the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for a briefing.
The recent TI Global Corruption Barometer-Asia 2020 report said 71% of Malaysians surveyed felt that the corruption scourge in government was a great problem. Another 39% felt corruption had been more rampant in the past 12 months.
PAC chairman Wong Kah Woh said in a statement today that the meeting with the MACC and TI is to get an explanation on the report as well as MACC’s plan to raise the integrity of the civil service.
He added that the TI report noted 35% of Malaysians believed the prime minister was corrupt, which was higher than nine other Asian countries, Taiwan (24%), Maldives (22%), Bangladesh (20%), Indonesia (20%), Myanmar (18%), China (15%), Vietnam (8%), Philippines (7%) and Cambodia (7%).
“The Parliament’s PAC believes this figure shows the distrust of Malaysians towards the integrity of the country's public administration and its members.
“Factors contributing to this situation need to be identified and efforts towards combating corruption need to be stepped up. The effectiveness of the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) also needs to be studied as the questionnaire period of this report is within the NACP's implementation period.”
The report also found that 36% of Malaysians surveyed believe parliamentarians were corrupt and this was higher compared to Bangladesh (18%), Taiwan (17%), Myanmar (14%), the Philippines (12%), China (11%), Cambodia (6%) and Vietnam (6%).
The report published on November 24 surveyed nearly 20,000 people in 17 countries across Asia about corruption and bribery. The report found that nearly three out of four people believe corruption is a big problem in their country.
TI’s report also found that corruption around elections was prevalent as one in seven people are offered bribes in exchange for votes at a national, regional or local election in the past five years.
“Protecting the integrity of elections is critical to ensuring that corruption doesn’t undermine democracy,” said TI chair Delia Ferreira Rubio in the report.
“Throughout the region, election commissions and anti-corruption agencies need to work in lockstep to counter vote-buying, which weakens trust in government.” – The Vibes, December 2, 2020
