PAC views global corruption Barometer Asia Report seriously

KUALA LUMPUR: The Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) views seriously the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) Asia 2020 Report published by Transparency International (TI), which stated that 71 per cent of Malaysians feel that corruption in the government is a serious problem.

Chairman Wong Kah Woh said PAC would invite TI to give a briefing on the report as well as the Malaysian AntiCorruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner to provide comments and share the MACC’s directions in its fight against corruption and improving the integrity of the country’s public administration.

“PAC is of the view that this figure shows the lack of confidence of Malaysians in the integrity of the country’s public administration and its personnel.

“Factors that contribute to this situation must be identified and efforts towards combating corruption need to be stepped up,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He said the efficacy of the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) also needed to be studied as the questionnaire for the survey was administered within the NACP implementation period.

Based on the report, 39 per cent of Malaysians felt that corruption has increased in the last 12 months and their satisfaction towards the MACC is rated at 74 per cent.

Thirty-six per cent of Malaysians is of the opinion that members of parliament are corrupt, higher than the percentage indicated by respondents surveyed in seven other Asian countries namely Bangladesh (18 per cent), Taiwan (17 per cent), Myanmar (14 per cent), Philippines (12 per cent), China (11 per cent), Cambodia and Vietnam, six per cent each.