Even officers who are good and competent may be involved in corruption, said Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) president Akhbar Satar.

He said this in response to minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor's statement that the senior Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) officer recently arrested for corruption was a "good officer".

"It is not necessary that if you have a good or competent officer that they're not involved in corruption, because corruption is a complex crime," Akhbar said today.

He said the temptation to commit graft will always exist when one is in a position that is open to misuse of power.

Speaking at the launch of his book 'Corruption, Crime and Malaysia' in Kuala Lumpur, Akhbar said anyone can be tempted regardless of whether they are good or competent at their jobs.

He also said that department or ministry heads should learn to recognise the red flags of corruption among their staff.

These include staff who are living beyond their means and those who have unusually close relationships with their clients, he said.

Corrupt officers may also refuse to take vacations as their crimes might be exposed in their absence, and they may turn down promotions as their current position might be a "goldmine", he said.

Akhbar urged the public to wait until the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) complete their investigations first before coming to any conclusions.

'Good, committed and attentive'

Yesterday, Tengku Adnan said that the DBKL officer who was arrested by MACC for corruption was a "good officer" who was promoted twice in a year due to his dedication and astute decision-making.

"As far as I know, the officer is a good officer, committed to his job and attentive. He moved up from Grade 54 to Special Grade C, and he is currently Special Grade B because he is good and has potential.

"However, that is him at the workplace... what he does apart from his job, I do not know," he had reportedly said.

When the federal territories minister was questioned on his remark again today, he became a little agitated and said that the line of questioning was unfair to him.

"If their work is good... apart from that, we don’t know the rest. Why pose this question to me," he told reporters earlier today.

The DBKL officer was among three senior officers detained on Monday for allegedly committing graft, abuse of power and money laundering.

The others were from the Malacca Public Works Department and Kelantan Tenaga Nasional Bhd. The commission seized various assets, including luxury cars, from the trio.

They also seized RM400,000 and froze RM13 million in accounts belonging to the suspects, including savings accounts and unit trusts worth between RM1 million and RM6 million.

During the raid, MACC officers also seized huge amounts of cash hidden in the ceiling of one of the suspects’ house.