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Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak was jubilant that the government initiatives to combat graft, the efforts of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Integrity and Standard Compliance Department (ISCD) in the police force and Performance Management Delivery Unit (Pemandu) has enabled Malaysia to moved up to 50th spot among 175 countries in the CPI 2014 ranking up from 53 last year.

Does the ground reality match the enthusiasm of our prime minister? A friend of mine told me how a private company called Oracle Synergies is allegedly stationed within Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), processing all licence applications. All licence applications payments for restaurants, businesses, entertainment outlets and others receive acknowledgement receipts from this company.

While DBKL has their own licencing department, why should this function be privatised to a private company stationed within the licencing department? Isn’t it corruption, nepotism and worse still lost of valuable revenue for DBKL? Last year DBKL had to raise their assessment rates to meet the increasing expenditures, thus burdening Kuala Lumpur residents.

The Malaysian embassy in Nepal, a foreign worker-sending country, is collecting fees for a private company that is not physically present for visa processing. In Kathmandu, the Malaysian Home Ministry allegedly made it mandatory for medical centres that conduct health checks for workers to install software developed by Malaysian IT firm Bestinet Sdn Bhd.

These mandatory installations have increased medical inspection costs from Rs1,500 to Rs4,215 (RM140) per worker, making the total cost including visa at Rs11,225 (RM373) as opposed to the previous cost of Rs6,525 (RM216). Why should the Home Affairs Ministry appoint a private company within the embassy to collect the visa processing fee?

Malaysian public perception towards corruption has remained unchanged at around 77 percent since 2005, according to Merdeka Centre. The survey showed that 56 percent of Malaysians feel the government’s fight against corruption leaves much to be desired despite the Transparency international’s 2014 ranking improvements.

Merdeka Centre found that 51 percent of Malaysians, especially the younger voters, felt that the annual Auditor-General’s Report on pilferages, wastages and overspending are not taken seriously. Transparency International’s (TI) CPI ranking for Malaysia may have improved but the allegedly government-sponsored corruption continues unabated.          

DBKL and the Home Ministry allegedly allowing private companies to collect revenue which belongs to the government shows the systemic and systematic corruption which may not be detected by TI’s 2014 CPI. These private companies cannot be collecting government revenue for themselves without the tacit support of the ministers. It’s an open secret that crony companies are awarded contracts without any tender.

‘Graft more institutional in Malaysia’

Land in the Federal Territories is allegedly being quietly transferred to Umno cronies at very low prices. Corruption is more institutional in Malaysia and therefore Transparency international may not be able to detect it.

The Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and the 6P programme to legalise illegal foreign workers, just to name a few, are some of the major scandals but no one has been convicted yet.

The costs overrun in the KLIA2 construction rose from RM1.6 billion to RM4 billion, yet there are cracks, water stagnating (ponding) and uneven runways. How do we classify them? Isn’t it corruption, too?  

Despite the rampant institutional corruption cases, Malaysia has improved its ranking in the  2014 CPI. While the Malaysian government may have taken initiatives to combat graft, Malaysian’s perception on the government’s seriousness has not improved.

The fact that MACC, Pemandu and ISCD are under the Prime Minister’s Office shows that these agencies are not independent, accountable to the prime minister and not the public, not transparent and protected under the Official Secrets Act confirms the perception that the government is not serious in combating graft.


S RAMAKRISHNAN is a former senator.

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