NACP needs room for re-evaluation — MACC
PUTRAJAYA: The National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) 2019-2023 needs to be given room to be re-evaluated in order to prioritise high-impact initiatives, says Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Policy, Planning and Research director Datuk Mohd Hafaz Nazar.
He said it could bring significant and rapid changes to the level of governance, transparency, integrity and accountability to effectively support the ongoing fight against corruption and abuse of power.
“Indirectly, this supports the government’s commitment in dealing with the people’s issues, especially efforts to restore, stabilise and empower the national economy,” he said in a statement Wednesday, in conjunction with the announcement of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2022 on Tuesday, which saw Malaysia ranked 61 out of 180 countries compared to 62 in 2021.
However, Malaysia’s score in the CPI reduced by one point from 48 in 2021 to 47 in 2022.
He said there were two main factors that contributed to the poor score, namely the lack of political will to fight corruption based on the slow implementation of the NACP and repeated governance failures despite continuous disclosures made by the Auditor-General.
“They include the lack of action against civil servants who abuse their positions, the launch of the Covid-19 stimulus package without going through the debate and scrutiny process in Parliament, the issue of cost overruns in mega-scale procurement, as well as the appointment of less qualified individuals to lead governmentlinked companies (GLCs) or government-linked investment companies (GLIC),” he said.
The second factor involves the delay in institutional reforms, in terms of the development of the Political Funding Bill, the Government Procurement Bill, amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010, the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) Bill and the lack of political will to empower the MACC as an independent and effective anti-corruption institution, he said.