
Corruption, abuse of power still high among civil servants
KOTA KINABALU (Nov 10): Issues of corruption and abuse of power is still high among civil servants in the country.
Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Azam Baki said as of October this year, they had detained 547 civil servants, including nine from the highest management, after receiving 3,173 pieces of information from the public.
Azam said they had also charged 185, of which 84 were convicted, and opened up 544 investigation papers, whereby 275 of those papers were concerning receiving bribes and six for giving bribes, followed by 129 for false claims and 74 for abuse of power.
“If we look at the statistics, close to 50 percent of those detained by MACC were civil servants, while the rest involved the public.
“To say that corruption among civil servants is decreasing, then the figure should be lower than 40 percent and going down each year.
“But it looks like we need to deal with issues of corruption involving government agencies with more detail, clarity and effectiveness.
“Civil servants have been entrusted with managing the rakyat’s money, and MACC will bolster its efforts to ensure that these funds are not mismanaged,” he said.
Azam said this to reporters after officiating the new MACC branch in Keningau on Saturday, which he said is timely based on the development of the district and the commission’s aim of expanding their services to the people.
He said before this, they only had an information centre in the district, but with the launch of the new branch, certain information can be investigated or handled directly by MACC Keningau or with assistance from MACC Kota Kinabalu.
“I hope that the communities near Keningau town and rural areas can make use of this new branch.
“And I give my assurance that if the information we receive is related to corruption, we will protect the identity of the whistleblowers,” he said.
Also present was MACC Sabah chief Datuk S Karunanithy.
-Agency