Countries that have the political will to fight corruption are those that give sufficient resources to their anti-corruption agency, says an international anti-corruption specialist.

Tony Kwok, former deputy commissioner and head of operations of Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), said all country leaders would claim they have the political will to fight corruption, especially during the general election in their countries.

"But, how can we prove it? How can they demonstrate they indeed have the political will to fight corruption?"

In an anti-corruption forum in Petaling Jaya today, Kwok (below) said this could be measured by the resources, including the annual budget and manpower, given to the graft busters.

Citing Hong Kong as an example, he said the city would allocate US$144 million or 0.1 percent of its budget to its graft buster annually, and it has 1,400 personnel to serve a population of 7.5 million.

Based on this, Kwok said Malaysia's MACC should have 5,800 personnel to serve its population of 32 million population.

He added that Malaysia would pass the test on political will if it gave such resources to its graft buster.

According to Kwok, many countries only allocated 0.01 percent of their budgets to their anti-corruption agencies. 

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