Stung by criticism, S'gor introduces Integrity Index

In a bid for a "cleaner and corruption-free administration", the Selangor government has introduced two measures to promote integrity.

Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim today announced the launch of the Pakatan Rakyat State Government Administration Integrity Index as well as an Integrity Pact.

He said that the Integrity Index would be used as a barometer to rank the state government’s effectiveness and the achievements annually, based on the principles of competency, accountability and transparency.

“The index will enable the state government to know its standing in its administration and at the same time allow people in Selangor to judge our level of commitment towards our policies,” he told a press conference this morning.

“The Integrity Pact is a preventative measure against corruption when awarding contracts and public tenders.”

Fielding questions, he said that the index would be decided by external evaluators.

“Of course it won’t be done by our own people. We have not decided yet, but it will likely be from Transparency International Malaysia or TI-M, the Coalition for Good Governance or reputable accounting firms,” he said.

Special committee

He denied that the need for integrity measures is due to the failure of other measures on good governance put in place when Pakatan took over the state government in 2008.

“We want to see how effective we are in the management of our transparency and accountability activities,” he said.

He said a point system of up to 100 would chart the “progression” of each person’s integrity.

This comes a few days after Khalid - who is also Selangor PKR chief - came under heavy criticism at the party’s national congress for failing to tackle corruption in the state.

During the congress, Khalid revealed that party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had instructed him to come up with an integrity plan.

A special committee will be set up to implement the measures with guidance from TI-M.

“At this time, the federal government is not included in the Global Integrity Index. The Selangor government will be the first state in the country to have an integrity index,” he said, adding that all executive councillors will be evaluated.

Successful applicants to be known

Meanwhile, state exco in charge of housing Iskandar Abdul Samad announced that the successful applicants for low-cost housing in Selangor will soon be able to check the status of their applications from July 1 onwards.

He said that they would be able to do this online and the names of successful applicants would also be displayed at local council offices.

He added that with this measure, it was hoped that the fiasco of local council officers themselves buying up the low-cost units would be history.

"In the past, the application goes through the district office. Now it goes to the state's Housing and Property Board.

So I hope that with this and with the list of names on public display, there will be double security," he said.