KUALA LUMPUR: ENFORCEMENT agencies dealing with rogue personnel have been directed to lay out their files on the table for an independent audit.
The Home Ministry said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission would see to it that there was no sweeping under the carpet by the agencies’ disciplinary units, and that such personnel were punished.
Its deputy minister, Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, said the directive was issued following concerns over reports of police and Immigration Department personnel being involved in criminal cases, including high-profile ones.
Media reports have highlighted the involvement of many personnel from these agencies, who were working with criminals and syndicates and raking in huge sums of money.
Among the high-ranking officers who had been arrested by MACC included a senior officer in Bukit Aman, who was found with hundreds of thousands of ringgit on him.
A senior policeman with the title “Datuk” was also picked up last December for his alleged involvement in graft. While he was subsequently removed from his post, he has not been charged with any offence.
Many Immigration officers have been cited for corruption, including for illicit dealings in matters regarding the issuance of visas to foreign workers, human trafficking and closing an eye on illegal immigrants using forged documents.
Wan Junaidi told the New Straits Times that the ministry was revamping the police’s Integrity and Standard Compliance Department (ISCD).
The Immigration Department, he said, had been directed to set up an integrity unit to weed out corrupt practices.
These set-ups will be supervised by MACC.
“I have instructed Immigration director-general Datuk Mustafa Ibrahim to sit with MACC officers to review every graft report made against their officers. Police will be involved in certain cases so that action could be taken.
“We need to get to the root of the issue and weed out the bad apples in our enforcement agencies,” he told the NST.
He said he wanted the Immigration Department to emulate the Prison Department’s standard operating procedure as it was comprehensive.
He said many officers did not observe their agencies’ guidelines.
“The officers in the integrity unit will perform routine checks on enforcement personnel. If they are found to have breached the law, they will be reined in on the spot.”
Wan Junaidi said the revamp of the police’s ISCD, which was set up in July 25, was to enable the department to look into the activities of each policeman. This, he said, would boost the department’s numbers as it had less than 30 now.
He said a policeman who was involved in human trafficking was being investigated under Section 26 K(2) of the Anti-Human Trafficking and Anti-Migrants Smuggling
Act 2007.
“We know of policemen being arrested for corruption and gambling, but human trafficking is new. Investigations are being carried out and the policeman will not be protected.”