‘RANKING DOES NOT REFLECT MACC EFFORTS’
Malaysia should be placed higher, says chief commissioner
MALAYSIA’S ranking and score in Transparency International Malaysia’s (TI-M) 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) are not an accurate reflection of the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission’s (MACC) efforts in combating graft.
MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad said Malaysia would be placed higher if the commission’s aggressive operations and numerous arrests had been taken into account.
“The index does not accurately reflect the efforts made by MACC, which has continuously made arrests since 2017.
“The research carried out by Transparency International, based in Berlin, Germany, not only focuses on corruption as its subject, but also touches on human rights, political scenarios and stability of doing business in Malaysia.”
He said such matters were beyond MACC’s scope of duties.
“To me, were one to view the actions MACC had taken throughout 2017, we focused not just on enforcement, but also on educating the public as preventive measures.
“Based on the reality of the situation here, we should be better placed in the index compared with 2016, which is why I am surprised by TI-M’s findings, as it is not in line with MACC’s efforts.”
MACC, he said, planned to propose the establishment of a Special Corruption Index to assess and provide an overview of corruption in the country.
The report, released yesterday, places Malaysia in 62nd place out of 176 countries, with a score of 47. This is a drop from its 2016 results where the country was ranked 55 with a score of 49 points.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan believed the high-profile arrests in recent years were the reason behind Malaysia’s lower CPI ranking.
“Over the last few years, MACC has displayed a solid commitment to enforcing the MACC Act and laws related to corruption with a number of arrests, which involved high-profile individuals.”
He added that it was possible that the high degree of publicity and exposure of these cases had generated a negative perception, which contributed to the decline in the score and ranking.