Transparency International – Malaysia

TI-M: Weak enforcement of corruption laws close to ‘criminal negligence’

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Transparency International-Malaysia chairman Akhbar Satar – The Malaysian Insight pic by Kamal Ariffin, February 22, 2018.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 — Authorities can be considered almost “criminally” negligent in their failure to strictly enforce the country’s strong laws against corruption, according to a Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) report released today.

In its inaugural Business Integrity Country Agenda (BICA), the watchdog gave Malaysia 100 across the board for its comprehensive laws to prohibit bribery of public officials, commercial bribery, laundering of crime proceeds, and collusion.

However, the same areas were all given marks of 50 when evaluated in terms of their enforcement.

Each area is scored from 0 to 100 by intervals of 25; 100 indicates that all requirements from the United Nations Convention Against Corruption 2004 were fulfilled while 0 shows that none was met.

Speaking at the launch, TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar said the findings made it clear where to concentrate reform efforts

“Malaysia has scored well in part of the indicator on legislations in the public sector in the BICA report.

“However, having laws that were not strictly enforced is like having a medicine chest full of the most wonderful modern drugs and not using them to treat a dangerously sick person on his last leg.

“By any yardstick, this would be considered criminal negligence,” he said in his speech at BICA report launch at the Royale Chulan Kuala Lumpur here today. Read more →

Political funding scores ducks in watchdog’s inaugural integrity report

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar said the scores should not be construed negatively but used instead as references and suggestions for future improvement. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 — Four areas concerning political funding in Malaysia received zero marks in Transparency International-Malaysia’s (TI-M) first Business Integrity Country Agenda (BICA) report released today.

Each topic is scored from 0 to 100 by intervals of 25; 100 indicates that all requirements were met while 0 shows that none was met.

The four areas that earned the zeros were: Laws on political contributions, laws on lobbying, enforcement and public disclosure on political contributions, and enforcement and public disclosure on lobbying.

Putrajaya proposed to enact laws on political funding in 2015, but is yet to introduce any.

“One of the black spots is the issue of undue influence. At the moment, Malaysia has no laws whatsoever on political contribution or lobbying,” said TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar today. Read more →

Malaysia drops seven spots in anti-graft ladder

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Source: The Malaysian Insight

Transparency International-Malaysia chairman Akhbar Satar says Malaysia’s ranking is likely to fall in the next few years until major corruption scandals are resolved. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Kamal Ariffin, February 22, 2018.

FAILURE to resolve major corruption scandals, like 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), Tabung Haji and Felda, is one of the main reasons Malaysia’s ranking fell in a global corruption index, an international anti-graft group said today.

“These scandals affected our score,” said Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) chairman Akhbar Satar at the launch of the Corruption Perceptions Index in Kuala Lumpur this morning.

Until these scandals are resolved satisfactorily, Akhbar said, Malaysia’s ranking is likely to further fall in the next few years.

Malaysia fell to No. 62 in the index last year, down seven spots from 2016, marking its lowest position since the index began in 1995.

The CPI ranks 180 countries by perceived levels of public sector corruption, according experts and business people. It uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Malaysia, since its 2014 score of 52, has been dropping every year, passing the halfway point in 2016 (49) and reaching 47 in 2017.

“We are at the same spot as Cuba. We should be better than them,” said Akhbar. Read more →

Civil societies want more say in UN graft convention review process

Nur Farzana Md Yusof

Source: FMT News

PETALING JAYA: Civil societies have urged Putrajaya to allow them to take a greater part in the review process of the country’s implementation of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC).

This comes after the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) and Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) were invited recently to participate in the review process for Article 13 of the convention which deals with participation of societies.

In a joint-press conference, C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel said it came as a surprise to learn from civil societies in other countries that there was no rule which confined participation of civil societies to one Article. Read more →

Police again viewed as most corrupt in transparency survey

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Source: FMT News

Religious leaders also take a beating, with 31% of respondents in Transparency-International Malaysia’s Global Corruption Barometer survey saying they are corrupt.

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) President Datuk Akhbar Satar — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) President Datuk Akhbar Satar — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KUALA LUMPUR: The police force is yet again perceived as the most corrupt institution in the country.

About 57% of the 1,009 Malaysian participants of Transparency-International Malaysia’s (TI-M) Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) survey felt the police department was the most corrupt.

The survey results also showed that 13% of respondents who had encountered the police in the past had paid a bribe to the men and women in blue.

But even this number is doubtful. According to TI-M president Akhbar Satar: “The problem is that some Malaysians are scared to say they have either bribed or attempted to bribe an officer of the government.

“They want to show that they have integrity.”

Akhbar was speaking at the release of the survey results here. Read more →

Transparency International Malaysia chief: Community-level committees needed to combat graft

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) President Datuk Akhbar Satar — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) President Datuk Akhbar Satar — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa

KOTA BARU, Dec 18 — Community-level committees are needed to monitor enforcement on corruption and misappropriation, said Transparency International Malaysia present Datuk Akhbar Satar.

He said the committee members should be people with integrity and their membership reviewed every three years.

“Although there are agencies like the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), we also need to monitor integrity to ensure that there is no corruption and misappropriation,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters after giving a talk on integrity in conjunction with the Kelantan Integrity Day celebrations and presentation of the Tasawwur Islam Certificates III Series, 2016, here today. Read more →

Pinda OSA kerja bodoh, tak masuk akal – TI-M

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Sumber: FMT News

Pindaan mengetatkan OSA jejaskan negara meliputi pelbagai aspek termasuk skor dan kedudukan dalam indeks persepsi rasuah antarabangsa.

OSA-222x300KUALA LUMPUR: Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) membidas cadangan Peguam Negara, Tan Sri Mohamad Apandi Ali untuk meminda Akta Rahsia Rasmi (OSA) 1972.

Presidennya, Datuk Akhbar Sattar, berkata cadangan itu boleh disifatkan sebagai kerja bodoh, tidak masuk akal dan hanya mengundang kerosakan kepada kerajaan dan negara.

“Ini kerja bodoh dan langkah ke belakang jika mahu meminda OSA dengan mengenakan hukuman lebih berat ke atas orang yang didakwa membocorkan ‘rahsia’ dan wartawan yang melaporkannya.

“Dunia menuju ke arah pembentukan masyarakat sivil yang lebih telus dan berintegriti, namun Peguam Negara mahu menjadi sebaliknya,” katanya dalam wawancara eksklusif bersama FMT, di sini, hari ini. Read more →

Najib tidak serius perangi rasuah, kata Transparency International

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Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Datuk Akbar Satar berkata sepanjang tempoh 6 tahun menjadi perdana menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak tidak memenuhi janji untuk memerangi rasuah. – Gambar fail The Malaysian Insider, 27 Januari, 2016.

Pentadbiran Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak tidak serius dalam memerangi rasuah walaupun sering berjanji berbuat demikian, kata Transparency International (TI).

Presiden TI Malaysia Datuk Akbar Satar berkata, Najib tidak mengotakan janji tentang usaha memerangi rasuah apatah lagi janji-janji lainnya sepanjang tempoh 6 tahun menjadi perdana menteri.

Ini katanya, termasuk cadangan mewujudkan undang-undang untuk membuat syarikat bertanggungjawab ke atas pekerja yang korup dan pengisytiharan aset ahli-ahli politik kepada awam.

Pentadbiran Najib juga berkali-kali mengabaikan permintaan daripada kumpulan-kumpulan anti rasuah untuk menjadikan Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) lebih bebas. Read more →

Malaysia drops to No. 54 in global graft index

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Source: The Malaysian Insider

Malaysia has dropped four points to 54 in this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 27, 2016.

Malaysia’s rank on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in 2015 has dropped by four points to 54, compared with 50 in 2014, trailing behind other developing countries such as Jordan (45), Namibia (45) and Rwanda (44).

The country’s score also dropped by two points to 50 in 2015 from 52 in 2014, said global graft monitor Transparency International.

Malaysia was also among the list of countries whose scores declined but its score was still the second highest in the Southeast Asian region, said TI’s Malaysia branch in a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Other countries whose scores also declined in the region are the Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong. Read more →

Malaysia gets ‘D’ in global watchdog’s survey on defence corruption

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Source: The Malay Mail Online

File photo of TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar. TI-M today called for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to oversee the defence and security sector in order to curb the risk of political corruption. — Picture by Zurairi AR

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 4 — Malaysia scored a “D” in a Transparency International survey this year that indicated a high risk of corruption in the defence sector, worse than Singapore’s “B” grade.

The Malaysian chapter of the global anti-graft body, Transparency-International Malaysia (TI-M), expressed concern with Malaysia’s score in the Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index (GI 2015), despite the country doing slightly better than the previous GI 2013 survey in which Malaysia scored a “D-”.

“With formal regulations governing the actions of military personnel and independent investigative organisations like the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Malaysia is in a good place to build its anti-corruption framework,” TI-M president Datuk Akhbar Satar said in a statement today.

“But significant vulnerabilities to corruption persist as a result of a weak legislative scrutiny, opaque budgets, weak whistleblower protections, and insufficient anti-corruption training in institutions,” he added.

According to the GI survey, Malaysia scored an “E”, which means a “very high” risk of defence corruption, in the operations risk category.

Malaysia’s best-performing category was personnel risk, in which the country scored a “C”.

Malaysia was graded “D” in the other categories measured—political risk, financial risk and procurement risk. Read more →