KUALA LUMPUR: A whopping 80 per cent of corruption cases built against civil servants involved them soliciting from their clients — the public.
In cases where they were offered “dirty money”, many were in fact triggered by the fear among “givers” that their business would face a “roadblock” if they refused to make under-the-table transactions with the civil servants they had to deal with.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission revealed to the New Straits Times that some areas in the public delivery system continued to allow corrupt civil servants, including those in decision-making positions, the ultimate power to abuse their position for illicit gratification.
MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Datuk Azam Baki told the NST that these “very powerful” personnel would even resort to dragging their feet or “making things difficult” for those who failed to “get the hint” that the only way to get things done was for a “win-win” arrangement that involved a certain “fee”.
“In many cases, the potential giver would be put under duress until they bow to pressure and pay the ‘service charge’.
“Sometimes, these officers stop at giving strong hints and sometimes, they use their power to arbitrarily drag the approval of projects or payments.
“These corrupt officials are mainly those with power and they will apply pressure... until they get what they want,” he said.
Statistics over the last two years showed that government servants made up about half of the commission’s cases. Statistics also showed that since 2011, only 162 civil servants (or a mere 0.01 per cent of 1.6 million employees) had reported attempts to bribe them.
Azam said in investigating such cases, the commission was often impeded by the reluctance of bribe-givers to come forward to assist in investigations for fear of putting their businesses or safety at risk.
This is despite them having lodged reports with the commission.
These complainants, he added, would often only come to the MACC upon learning the hard way that in giving bribes, “once is never enough”.
“They want to protect themselves but at the same time, they can no longer sustain giving bribes as the corrupt officials they have been dealing with would keep upping the game and asking for higher sums,” he said.
Azam revealed to the NST that the situation was so dire that from August last year, only one case was established from a public complaint.
The many cases that the public had seen brought to light, he added, were the result of proactive probes that the commission’s investigators had carried out.
Azam said although the MACC was not seeing enough of those being offered bribes reporting them, the commission was hopeful that integrity would prevail.
“We seriously hope that the people and authorities who have been offered bribes will come forward and report it to us. It is not happening as much as we would like now,” he said, adding that government agencies must start working to plug loopholes in their systems that allowed corrupt officials to continue with their wayward ways.
Azam said the public, on their part, should not worry about coming forward with information that could assist the MACC in combating corruption, promising that the commission would protect them under the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010.
“The act provides protection for whistleblowers from any prejudicial act resulting from disclosures that have been made.
“We are a strong proponent of the act and we use it to protect those who come to us with information related to corruption and other criminal activities,” he said.
Azam also told the NST that the commission’s investigators had, in recent years, been put through serious intensive upskilling training, including in forensics.
The commission, he said, was determined to increase their arrest and conviction rates.
The MACC scored a conviction rate of 77 per cent in 2015 and improved to 79.5 per cent last year.
“This year, we hope to achieve the international standard of 85 per cent.
“We resolve to achieve this, despite the challenges we currently face, including budget cuts,” he said, adding that the commission’s graft busters were already empowered with new investigative techniques to better secure convictions.