KUALA LUMPUR: In Malaysia's quest to rank in the top 25 in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), there is much to be learned from South Korea.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Monitoring and Coordination Division director Mohamad Tarmize Abdul Manaf said South Korea was one of the countries that had been successful in improving its scores and rankings in the CPI.
In 2016, South Korea scored 53 points and ranked 52nd out of 176 countries, along with the improvement in the global index for six consecutive years.
"The latest CPI in 2022, shows that the country's score has increased by 10 points to 63, ranking 31st out of 180 countries," he said in Columnist@MACC posted on the anti-graft website (https://www.sprm.gov.my/index.php?page_id=103&contentid=3099&cat=BKH&lan...).
Not trying to belittle Malaysia, but Tarmize said that in reality, the country's score and position in the CPI had not seen a significant change.
In fact, he added, it recorded a declining trend in recent years.
"In comparison with South Korea, in the 2016 CPI, Malaysia scored 49 points and was ranked 55th out of 176 countries.
"Six years later, the 2022 CPI shows that Malaysia's score has decreased to 47 points, and it is ranked 61st out of 180 countries.
"Ironically, before 2006, Malaysia had a better CPI score than South Korea. Both countries once shared the same score and rank in the 2007 CPI, with a score of 5.1 (old CPI format) and a rank of 43rd out of 179 countries."
He noted that South Korea was not a country known for having administrators and politicians who were free from corruption, with several of its top leaders facing court proceedings for such crimes.
Tarmize said anti-corruption efforts in the country were led by the Anti-Corruption and Human Rights Commission (ACRC).
"The ACRC does not have the power to conduct investigations, but its main responsibility is to formulate anti-corruption policies, implement prevention initiatives, and conduct public awareness activities.
"Investigations and prosecutions of corruption cases are carried out by the police, the public prosecutor's office, and the new agency, the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO)."
He said South Korea had several initiatives to strengthen the integrity of public sector workers, contributing to the increase in its CPI score.
"First, South Korean civil servants are required to undergo integrity, ethics, and anti-corruption courses annually. This training is organised by the ACRC's Training Institute. Other agencies, such as the National Human Resources Development Institute (NHI), also organise integrity and ethics-based courses.
"Second, all public agencies in South Korea will undergo integrity assessments. The ACRC conducts the Comprehensive Institutional Integrity Assessment (CIA) to assess and grade more than 500 public agencies in the country.
"Interestingly, the grade of each public agency is made public, with the CIA conducted annually with a financial allocation of around US$2 million.
"In Malaysia, MACC conducts two similar assessments of public agencies, namely Kajian Tahap Rasuah Perkhidmatan Awam (Study on the Level of Corruption in Public Services) and Kajian Penilaian Keberkesanan Pelaksanaan Inisiatif Pencegahan Rasuah Agensi Awam (Study on the Effectiveness Assessment of the Implementation of Anti-Corruption Initiatives in Public Agencies).
"Unlike the CIA, the findings of the MACC studies are not made public. As an improvement, an approach similar to the CIA should be applied by disclosing the study findings to the public.