PUTRAJAYA: Putrajaya’s efforts in graft-busting has borne fruit as the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) has yielded encouraging results barely six months since its launch.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the faith of the public, both locally and internationally, was also reflected in a study on the effectiveness of graft prevention action that has been carried out by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
He said the Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption was told that the people’s perception of the government’s seriousness in tackling the scourge reflected a 11 per cent hike in trust from 59.8 per cent in 2016 to 70.8 per cent last year.
Dr Mahathir said Malaysia recorded a good showing in the Edelman Trust Barometer Global Report that showed people in Malaysia giving a trust score of 60 in 2019, a rise from 46 last year.
“Malaysia also went up three places in the Asian Corporate Governance Association (ACGA) Corporate Governance Watch from seventh place in 2017 to fourth in 2018.
“The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report also stated that its 2019 Democracy Index ranked us at the 52nd place, compared to 59 the year before, while the Index on Media Freedom put Malaysia in first place among the Southeast Asian nations and 123rd of 145 countries globally.
“The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business report also showed Malaysia climbing up six positions from 24th place in 2018 to 15th place in 2019,” he said after chairing the 9th Special Cabinet Committee on Anti-Corruption.
Dr Mahathir also said that there were a number of policy matters that were carried out which had contributed to the upswing in public trust on the government's commitment to weeding out corruption. Among these, he said, were:
i. There would be no appointments of members of parliament as chairs or board members in government-linked companies except for Khazanah Nasional Bhd. This is a departure from previous practices where GLCs such as Tabung Haji, Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) and Felda as well as Felda Global Ventures were helmed by such persons, leading to losses until today.
ii. As of now, there have been no procurements made through direct negotiations for physical development projects under the Public Works Department. Now the PWD will implement a 100 per cent direct tender process for all development projects under the 11th Malaysia Plan. This is better as in 2017 only 30 per cent was made through an open tender system and 58 per cent of the projects were awarded limited tenders while 12 per cent were given direct negotiations.
iii. Parliamentary integrity has been restored where the Dewan Rakyat Speaker who was appointed resigned from his political post and the Public Accounts Committee chair was appointed from the opposition. Information will be revealed in a more transparent way as seen in the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) white paper, Tabung Haji investigations and reports on the land swap involving the Defence Ministry that have been presented in Dewan Rakyat.
iv. The eight papers that were discussed in the meeting also gave focus to initiatives that were underlined in NACP 2019-2023 on the efforts to improve governance and integrity in the war on corruption.