New measures to fight corruption
2011/03/29
By Maizatul Ranai
maizatulranai@nst.com.myShare |
THE government has made some amendments to the National Key Performance Indicators (NKPI) this year to make it more relevant to the new initiatives to fight corruption.
The new NKPI, aimed at measuring the achievements of last year's initiatives, was divided into two with regards to integrity pacts.
The first initiative was the implementation of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) roadmap, featuring the issuance of the Treasury Directive Letter by the Ministry of Finance, requiring all government bodies to include the integrity pact in their contracts.
Developed by Transparency International, the integrity pact is an agreement stipulating rights and obligations that neither side will either pay, offer, demand or accept bribes, collude with competitors to obtain the contract; or engage in such abuses while executing the contract.
The other NKPI measures the next phase in the implementation of a broader score of integrity efforts, which is in the private sector.
The government is likely to develop a NKPI to track the number of private sector participants in the initiative.
The Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 was gazetted on Dec 15 and tracking the effectiveness of the implementation of the act is crucial, especially on the percentage of cases closed (investigated) and those cases closed (action taken).
Also being measured is the setting up of compliance units in enforcement agencies.
Five leading enforcement agencies had set up compliance units last year and completed the first round of training.
Some key areas needed to be addressed are the the poor perception of regulatory and enforcement agencies where the police, Customs, Immigration and Road Transport Departments, had the highest number of corruption cases under Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) investigation.
The implementation of the Convicted Corruption Offenders Database or more popularly known as MACC's "name and shame" list launched on March 4 last year, was one of the big wins in tackling corrupt practices in the country.
Highlighting the names, pictures, identity card numbers and case details of convicted offenders, the database created greater public awareness and helped encourage the stigma of corruption in the public.
The target list of 84 offenders last year was surpassed with some 284 names at the end of the year.
The database can be accessed by the public, including employers who want to conduct background checks on certain individuals.
The names of offenders will only be removed from the database after three years if there are no repeat offences.
The introduction of Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 was also an initiative that helped to check corruption level last year.
With the GTP roadmap highlighting the problems caused by lengthy corruption trials and appeals, measures were also taken to ensure that corruption cases were completed within one year, particularly in cases of public interest.
Work on the 14 special Corruption Sessions Courts and four special Corruption High Courts were completed and opened.
Another measure was to amend the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) to speed up trials.
The amendments were passed in Parliament on April 22, in Dewan Negara on May 6 and gazetted on June 10.
The amendments included the introduction of the pre-trial conference, aiming at shortening trials.
This platform allows the accused to discuss issues and reach an agreement on plea bargaining with the public prosecutor before the commencement of hearings.
Case management must be conducted within 60 days from the date the accused is charged and hearings must be held within 90 days from the date the accused is charged.
Malaysia's journey in the battle against graft is still long and arduous, but the government believes that it need not be seen as a negative development, as far as CPIs are concerned.
The government believes that the increase in certain scores under the CPI, namely from the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, WEF's Global Competitiveness Report and PERC's Asian Intelligence Newsletter surveys indicated that the country was moving in the right direction.
Read more: New measures to fight corruption http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/12gtp1/Article#ixzz1I2kenOmX
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