MP SPEAKS | Malaysia’s CPI: The never-ending journey

MP SPEAKS | It’s very sad to see our Corruption Perception Index (CPI) score and rank dropped. Just a year ago, we scored 10 points higher and moved six ranks to 47 out of 180 countries. However, it is sad and a pity that we could not sustain them.

This is the difference between our tiny nation and the Scandinavians who put in lots of effort to not only sustain their previous score but move on to a better rank. It is a national pride to be labelled as a corrupt-free developing nation.

Now, we only managed a score of 51 points compared to 53 the previous year. We are being placed at 57 out of 180 countries in contra to the previous year rank of 51. Even though statistically the drop in two points is insignificant, it still indicates big trouble.

The score and rank are the results of not our citizens' perception of our country, but the views of expatriates, experts and business people in Malaysia. It is the perception of managers and captains of industries.

We shall now scrutinise the outcome of all the surveys to identify the root cause of the expatriates' perception of corruption. Even though it is only a perception, there must be reasons. Why do business people perceive that we are corrupt? Does the expatriate concerned has a hidden agenda to destroy our economy? No, we don’t think so.

Moving forward, what the nation has to do to push back out of the CPI score and rank in 2021? We must maintain and proceed with all the 115 initiatives in the National Anti-Corruption Plan.

The government should issue periodic progress reports on the implementation of the initiatives. The National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) must be given the mandate to issue progress reports to the press.

The organisations that have developed their Organisational Anti-Corruption Plan should upload them on their websites and also on the GIACC's website for public reference. 

The heads of the department of the government agencies shall also periodically report the progress on the initiatives that have been carried out to address the risk of corruption in their agencies.

The ongoing trials of high-profile politicians must proceed without any withdrawal of the cases, either discharge and acquittal or even discharge not amounting to acquittal. Let the court make the decision on the closure of the prosecution's case.

The public ought to know the reasons for conviction or acquittal so as not to create a negative perception against the MACC. The MACC must have a full mandate to investigate all high-profile cases, especially involving politicians.

Apart from that, the MACC must investigate and bring to trial any officials of business entities under the new provision of Section 17A, for facilitating bribe, especially to politicians.

The Finance Ministry and the Auditor-General must establish an Independent Commission on Auditor General's Report to look at leakages and non-governance in public procurement and government expenditures.

The independent commission must comprise former senior government officials and government corporations experts with knowledge of government financial procedures. They must be brave to speak out or query government officials on any perceived leakage or breach of financial procedures that had led to the leakage.

This independent commission must be able to recommend domestic investigation against the perpetrators and the supervising officers or even the heads of the organisation for the leakage. 

The commission shall then peruse the findings and recommend the necessary deterrent action against the perpetrators, the supervising officers and the heads of the departments. The report on the leakage, investigation and action must be tabled in Parliament and made public.

The government and agencies concerned must from now onwards work in collaboration with Transparency International Malaysia to look at their recommendations and views to help the nation improve the CPI score and rank in the future, preferably for next year's report.

It’s time we worked not in a silo but in collaboration to put our nation as a corrupt-free nation on the global map. We trust that nothing is impossible but there must be perseverance and strong will. We love the nation and we believe Malaysia can be a corrupt-free nation.

HASANUDDIN YUNUS is Hulu Langat MP.

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