By Nigel Edgar
KUCHING, Feb 11: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg wants the authorities to act immediately, without fear or favour, upon receiving signs or reports of corruption by civil servants.
He said this approach would root out the problem quickly, while delaying might worsen the situation and makes it difficult to deal with.
Launching ‘Majlis Amanat Perdana Integriti’ at Penview Convention Centre (PCC) here this morning, Abang Johari noted that of late, corporate figures, politicians and civil servants had been called up by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) following reports of corruption.
In that respect, Abang Johari said the state government was following very closely the development of these cases and is confident that the situation is being handled professionally.
“I also urge the people not to jump to conclusions based on emotions or base their accusations on trial by media, which sometimes may not be true to deliberately sabotage the accused’s reputation because of hate, jealousy or politics.”
He reminded that all accused were entitled to be treated fairly as long as he or she had not been proven guilty yet.
“Even so, there is no reason for the authorities to wait for any corruption to happen before making their move,” Abang Johari said, adding that prevention is better than cure.
In that respect, he gave assurance that the state government was committed to doing all it could to uphold integrity within its administration.
One commitment he cited was when he announced on Dec 2 last year to place Certified Integrity Officers (CeIOs) in all state ministries and departments.
“To prove this, today we will be launching the course for the CeIOs to train 40 state civil servants, including from state statutory bodies, organised by MACC and the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Academy (Maca) jointly with the state Integrity and Ombudsman Unit.
“Not only that, an MACC officer would also be placed in the Integrity and Ombudsman Unit to help us enhance the integrity culture and improve accountability, transparency and best administration practised, including in each state statutory bodies.”
He thanked Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for passing and gazetting the Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018.
Abang Johari explained that the key amendments of the principal act were to provide “That a commercial organisation commits an offence if a person associated with the commercial organisation corruptly ‘gives, agree to give, promises or offers to any person’ any gratification”. — DayakDaily
