Commitment by private, public sectors to eliminate corruption

By ROHAMI SHAFIE

CORRUPTION is cancer in the country's economy. It is a fact which cannot be denied , a fact backed by the Transparency International Report 2009 that the Special Taskforce to Facilitate Business or PEMUDAH , citing a World Bank study, estimates that corruption could cost Malaysia as much as RM10 billion a year, an amount which could give huge implication to the country's economic sector.

However, to what extent can efforts that have been carried out able to check corruption? It is sad because according to PEMUDAH, Malaysia only spends RM5 per capita to address corruption.

In fact, statistics also showed that only 7,223 corruption cases were investigated out of 71,558 cases which were reported between 2000 and 2006, while the total number of cases that were proven guilty were 524 cases or 0.7 per cent.

Hence, it is not surprising when the Corruption Perception Index 2009 issued by the Transparency National recently showed Malaysia's ranking dropped to 56 this year from 47 and 43 in 2008 and 2007, respectively.

This indicates that more effective measures should be taken to eliminate corruption. Therefore, when the government made it one of the National Key Results Area (NKRA), everybody, including the public and those in the private and public sectors should join hands to check the menace before it become a cancer.

Efforts made by the government, like establishing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), em,barking on reformation like introducing the Whistleblowers Act to protect witnesses and to take appropriate action against corrupt civil servants as stated in the Auditor-General's Report are inadequate, if not followed with cooperation from the private sector and the public.

The responsibility to eliminate corruption should not be burden on MACC alone. MACC cannot act without sufficient information and cooperation from all quarters, especially the witnesses.

The small percentage of cases solved compared with the number of complaints received indicates that the investigation process is an important aspect in corruption cases. In fact, MACC's investigations should be done fast because information from witnesses can only be obtained during office hours.

According to the president of the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Akhbar Satar, if investigation is delayed, witness can escape, hide or destroy evidence and this will create problems to MACC.

This means, the process of questioning a witness during office hours is a challenge for MACC in ensuring all evidence are gathered so that justice can be done.

Therefore, don't just hope for efforts by the government alone, Continuous efforts to address the menace requires the commitment of all quarters because the percentage of members of the public and private employees was almost the same, at 54 percent and 46 per cent respectively.

This percentage indicates that corruption involves both in the public and private sectors.

In the private sector, the setting of the Internal-Audit Department, with the cooperation of an a outside auditor could afford reduce corruption cases. These two parties should be placed in a place of their own so that they could investigate abuse and corruption cases.

They are the front liners, experts in detecting and eliminating abuse, cheating and corruption, although their work scope is different.

However, what the use if these two bodies do not get the required cooperation from the top people in the private sector. In other words, they should be open on the importance of addressing abuse and corruption. This openness should be followed by action. The answer to this action is through good management.

The reason being that good management teaches a person about accountability, transparency and integrity as elements which arew crucial and should be sowed in the culture of every companies.

In the public sector and individuals, keep away from corruption and provide information to the authorities if there is knowledge of corruption. Support the government because eliminating corruption is a “jihad” (holy war) which is not done only seasonally, but should be implemented continuously without giving up.

The writer is Senior Lecturer, Accounts and Finance, College of Business, (COB), Universiti Utara Malaysia