Business

Wednesday November 18, 2009

MACC asks private sector to play bigger role

By LAALITHA HUNT


PETALING JAYA: The private sector needs to be engaged further in order to combat corruption, says Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commisioner Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan.

He said Malaysia is developing fast with the private sector playing a major role in the growth of the country, so the rise in the corruption level in the private sector should be monitored and controlled.

“One of the roles that the private sector could play is to outline a strict policy in regards to prevention of fraud and corruption within its organisation,” he said after the seminar on Corruption Prevention in the Business Sector 2009 jointly organised by the MACC, MACC Consultation and Prevention of Corruption Panel as well as Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia yesterday.

He said the level of corruption in the private sector was at an early stage and not at a worrying level yet.

MACC inspection and consultancy division deputy director Yip Pit Wong said in 2008, out of 11,000 units of information provided by the public, 87% was from the public sector.

“Out of 1,100 investigation papers last year, 84% was against the civil sector,” he added.

He also said the private sector needed to be further made aware of the consequences of corruption and be more forthcoming with any information available on fraud cases.

Meanwhile, MACC Consultation and Prevention of Corruption Panel chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam opines that the private sector was as guilty as the public sector in condoning acts of corruption.

“Although the public perceives the civil sector to be more corrupt compared with the private sector, it takes two hands to clap,” he said, adding that corruption thrived on inefficiency and the private sector was willing to bribe in order to save time and hasten approval processes, for example.

On another matter, Ahmad Said denied that MACC was close to the ruling government although it was perceived to be by the public.

“We need to make the public aware that we carry out investigations based on many reports by the public not without basis, so we are not biased against certain individuals or political parties,” he said, adding that the Prime Minister or the ruling government did not interfere with the MACC’s investigations.

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