The ACA director-general has suggested that the anti-corruption agency should go after bribe givers instead. It is a very good suggestion yet it seems to further protect the civil servants who will have the added choice of reporting any offer below their expectation.

Our government should improve the efficiency of the civil service to such an extent that there is no room or need for any offer of bribe. Who wants to bribe if there is no need for it? I would blame it on the immediate supervisors who should be able to monitor the workload properly so that any delay is dealt with before the public perceives that a bribe is needed to move the file.

Court cases and bankruptcy cases are known for missing certain files for a fee. The service can be either for the file to go missing so that the person gets a period of "unofficial reprieve" or for the person desperately looking for a file.

Dishonesty seems to be rampant everywhere. At any of those car parks which are manually operated, the ticket is likely to differ from the counterfoil. In cases where the cashier uses a till, if one asks for a receipt, it is likely to be one meant for an earlier parker. Where there is a proper till being used at a warehouse sale, given the opportunity, the cashier will use the calculator instead so that he can pocket the money.

To give credit where it is due, I do find improvements in many places like the JPJ, Kedai Telekom and so on. Recently, I was pleasantly surprised when I went to the Ipoh Immigration Department to renew my passport. The counter staff served with a smile and not only did she not

tell me off for not completing the form properly, she actually filled in the few missing information which she had in her record! How I wish other departments are as customer friendly as this.

Sometimes, minor inconvenience matters a lot to the public and it only needs a considerate officer to realise it and make it possible at minimum cost. Once, I was at the EPF building in Ipoh to make a withdrawal. It required a photocopy of my IC. Being early, the Greentown Mall shops were still closed and I had to walk half a kilometre to Fair Park to do it.

It occurred to me then that the EPF's existence is due to the employees' contributions and therefore we should be served rather than being made to run around for something as simple as photocopy IC. If the commercial sector can do it for free, why not the EPF? Instead of having fanciful buildings and lending hundreds of millions to companies which banks would not lend or getting involved in housing developments which it has no experience nor the right to do so, it should have provided better service and better returns.

The lack of accountability in the civil service, especially in the Land Offices, is incredible, judging from the yearly reports of the auditor-general. No remedial action seems necessary as it will only carry forward to the next year. Any wrongdoing discovered will have the culprit transferred to another department.

All they need are competent accounting staff and good internal controls, as well as strict enforcement of deadlines to present the accounts. If the Registrar of Companies can penalise companies for late submission of accounts, why can't the government do it to their own departments?

Every year we hear of ministers' rhetoric to improve, for example, the issue of land titles and certificates of fitness for new buildings, yet the problems remain. It is either the ministers are out of touch with reality or there are no effective follow-up action to ensure compliance.