Malaysia's Corruption Fighting Efforts Gain Commendation From Transparency International

KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's efforts in combating corruption through the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has been given the thumbs-up by Transparency International (TI) co-founder Michael J. Hershman. Describing Malaysia's system to fight corruption as a comprehensive approach, he said: "If the Arab Spring countries which saw a number of their governments collapse since last year, and other high-risk nations are serious about confronting their corruption culture, they should look at the innovative model instituted by Malaysia. Hershman, in an article on news portal Huffington Post published on June 22, noted that since its inception in 2008, the MACC made outstanding progress by focussing on a three-pillar approach that instituted reform in government, civil society and business. "A truly effective anti-corruption system must have stakeholders from all ends of society working in concert. "To this end, the Malaysian Government has worked hard to include the business community and civil society in its anti-corruption efforts," he said. One of the engagement programmes was to encourage private and government-linked companies to publicly sign an Integrity Pledge or engage in a contractually-bound Integrity Pact. Hershman said, unlike empty pledges made in some countries, Malaysia's Integrity Pledge had real implications for both the country and company alike. "In return for cooperating with an outside team that may include officials from TI, auditor-general's office, finance ministry or other stakeholders to verify their progress, companies receive a competitive advantage, such as being shortlisted during competitive bidding processes," he said. He added, the even more rigorous Integrity Pact which was introduced last year during the bidding process for the Mass Rapid Transit project, was used as entry requirement for companies wishing to bid for the government project. "Implementing internal compliance policies within the larger anti-corruption framework should be in each stakeholder's self-interest. With dozens of companies voluntarily making the Integrity Pledge to date, the success of this approach is evident," he said. He noted that another key component of MACC's strategy was judicial reform and transparency. He said, with the creation of anti-corruption courts in recent years, and a mandate that all corruption cases be adjudicated within 12 months, the judicial enforcement mechanism was completely flipped on its head, compared to previously, where corruption cases would take years to reach the courts, rendering many of the complaints relatively meaningless. Another of Malaysia's success in corruption fighting efforts, Hershman said, was the use of electronic data-based procurement processes which allow decisions based in a competitive process that was fully transparent. He said MACC's corruption fighting efforts also included prevention education through public service announcements, visits to schools and anti-corruption training for law enforcement officials in Malaysia and other countries. Despite the success, the expert on corporate and government compliance noted that MACC was still a work in progress, as there were still imperfections that the government would need to address. He said some of the issues, like the "big fish" problem, were political realities, as they reflected a public desire to have symbolic victories that were satisfying but did not guarantee the level of comprehensive reform necessary for the system's long-term sustainability. -- BERNAMA