KUCHING, April 1: Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Sarawak has been urged to set up a special taskforce to monitor the distribution of aid of the federal government’s Prihatin Stimulus Package and Sarawak government’s Sarawakku Sayang package.
Human rights activist Peter John Jaban highlighted that MACC Sabah have set up a taskforce to look into allegations that the RM100 assistance for groceries for those most affected by the Movement Control Order (MCO) amid the Covid-19 pandemic has been misused.
“Recently MACC director for Sabah Karunanithy Subbiah said that MACC will set up a special taskforce to monitor the distribution of goods for every constituency. So we hope that MACC Sarawak will do the same.
“Every Malaysian who will receives assistance from the Covid-19 Package will need to monitor to what extent the aid is delivered. There must be transparency, accountability and efficiency in its distribution,” according to Peter John in a statement today.
He noted the federal government recently announced a new stimulus package while the state government also has rolled out stimulus packages, amounting to billions of ringgit in aid to the most hard hit sectors of society facing economic hardship from the MCO.
“We hope that measures can be extended as appropriate and necessary for sectors which have so far not received support.
“While most Malaysians are thankful for any help at this testing time, we must remain aware that this represents huge sums of money passing through several institutions and so there is huge potential for corruption and mismanagement.”
He asserted that with the MCO still in place, the distribution has not been ratified by the Parliament and the usual systems of oversight are largely absent.
“We would hope that Malaysians will band together in this time of need and not take advantage of the situation for their own gain. However, all citizens are obliged to remain vigilant against the possibilities.
“It is up to us as a nation to ensure that this stimulus package reaches those that most need it and is not diverted by bad hats seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of others.
“This includes those seeking to gain political mileage from distribution of public funds and those discriminating on political grounds in its delivery,” added Peter John. — DayakDaily
