DAP whip Lim Kit Siang has challenged the Special Committee on Corruption to table its report on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's (MACC) first year of operations in Parliament by next Monday.

radzi sheikh ahmad "More than a month ago and before the start of the present meeting of Parliament, the Chairperson of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Corruption Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad ( right ), called for a Parliamentary debate on its report.

"Mohd Radzi said allowing a Parliamentary debate on the MACC would be a healthy development in improving the performance of MACC," said Lim in a statement yesterday.

According to the MACC Act, the special committee submits its annual report to the prime minister who will then table it in the Dewan Rakyat.

Setbacks in battling corruption

However, there is no sign of the report for the debate to be held and this goes against the commitment of achieving National Key Results Area (NKRA), continued Lim, who also contended that the report should be debated as one of the NKRA targets was "eradication of corruption, especially grand corruption".

"More than 18 months have lapsed since the launch of the MACC and public confidence in the commission and its campaign against corruption especially against those in high places have suffered further setbacks," he said, referring to the death of a Selangor executive councillor's political aide, Teoh Beng Hock.

NONE "The public uproar and controversy over the cause of Teoh's death remain the major factors why MACC has not been able to gain public confidence in its independence, integrity and professionalism.

"The many other outstanding unresolved, untouched or wound-down cases affecting corruption have aggravated public confidence in the MACC," said Lim ( left ), who is also the Ipoh Timor MP.

As examples, he named the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, the MACC flip-flop on taking a statement from private investigator P Balasubramaniam in London, the C4 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and the alleged vast and unusual wealth of the Sarawak Chief Minister.