MACC: Surveys show Malaysia on the right track in fighting graft!

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia is on the right track and starting to make an impact in fighting corruption although, at the same time, it still has a much work to do, said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).Its Director of Delivery and Monitoring Unit for Corruption National Key Result Area (NKRA), Datuk Hisham Nordin, said the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report and Political and Economic Consultancy Asian Intelligence surveys all revealed an increase in scores.

"We use these surveys as comparisons as they are the only ones that are able to provide data for both 2009 and 2010. MACC is not in any way trying to deflect attention from the poor Transparency-International Corruption Perception (TI-CPI) index score."All we are saying is that there are also surveys that have shown us improving in our fight against corruption. We want the rakyat to know that as well. No one is citing success yet but we are definitely on the right track," he said in a statement, here Wednesday.

Malaysia maintained its position of 56th out of 178 countries in TI-CPI 2010 but slightly dropped in the score of 4.4 from last year's 4.5 out of a perfect 10.Hisham said although the TI-CPI score might not be satisfactory, it ironed out a clear path as to where the country should be heading in its continuous fight against graft.

"Our unit works closely with the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) and we accept the TI-CPI score in its entirety even though it is far from flattering. There is absolutely nothing to hide," he said.
However, he said the MACC and Pemandu were not discouraged because they knew what had been done and put in place to fight corruption under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

"These robust initiatives are still in their early stages of implementation and we are confident they will yield the results we want," he said.Hisham said the TI-CPI score only strengthened their resolve to work even harder to ensure that corruption was significantly reduced in this country.

Since the NKRA efforts wereinitiated in January this year, the government had endeavoured to put in place appropriate mechanisms that would help reduce corrupt practices, he added.Among them were naming and shaming the corrupt offenders, provide guidance in support letters, disclosing government procurement contracts, whistle blower protection, completing corruption cases within a year and 'hot job' rotations.
Hisham said more serious and effective actions need to be taken in 2011.

Source : http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/2010/11/macc-surveys-show-malaysia-on-right.html