Varsity appoints first chief integrity officer

THE founder and president of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Malaysian Chapter is now the first chief integrity officer of HELP University.

Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar (pic) ,whoisalso the immediate Transparency Malaysia past president began his new role on June 1.

In his thank you speech given during the celebratory tea held last month, Akhbar said there has been a sharp increase in the number of appointments for chief integrity officers in public and private organisations since June 2020.

This was the same time the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) began to enforce 17A of the MACC Act 2009 (amendment 2018).

He added that under the provision of 17A, commercial organisations are liable and can be punished if their employees or associates are involved in corruption.

HELP vice-chancellor and president Prof Datuk Dr Paul Chan said Akhbar’s appointment showed the university’s commitment towards good governance.

He added that there is no better qualified professional than Akhbar to assume this critical role.

During the last few months, Akhbar led a team of experts to train more than 600 HELP staff in corporate governance and the enforcement of 17A.

He also developed a manual of references for this purpose.

Chan added that in the professional fraternity, Akhbar is a renowned criminologist and crime analyst. He currently holds a professorial chair and serves as senior research fellow at the university’s Institute of Crime and Criminology.

His expertise is recognised worldwide and he is often invited to speak on fraud, corruption, ethics, integrity and detection of deception in seminars and conferences held both locally and internationally.

Among other positions, Akhbar was appointed by the government as a member of the National Consultative Committee on Political Funding.

In 2019, he became a committee member on the Investigative Committee for Governance, Procurement and Governance Finance, which is chaired by former auditor-general Tan Sri Ambrin Buang.

More recently, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah appointed Akhbar as a board member in the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board and MACC.