MALAYSIA, quite rightly, wants to go to a good place. But the corrupt in the public service are preventing the country from getting there.
Not a week passes — we are being generous here — without the media reporting this or that officer being investigated or charged in court for all manner of corrupt practices.
Add to these, the number of those who have managed to stay below the radar — they are certainly not a small number — and you get the picture of how corruption has bled the country to an anaemic level.
In May last year, Emir Research, a think tank, conservatively estimated the amount the country lost to corruption over the last 26 years to be RM2.3 trillion.
Add to this the RM39.74 billion that Putrajaya was forced to fork out between 2019 and 2023 as part of its commitment to settle the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) debt. That is not all, says the Auditor General's Report 2024. Come 2035, Putrajaya must settle RM9.46 billion, the balance of the 1MDB debt.
Just imagine the hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, parks forgone.
The recent announcement by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki that the MACC is reengineering itself to focus on grand corruption in 2025 is timely.
We are glad to hear that as part of the structural transformation, a new emphasis will be given to governance investigation. Poor governance in the public sector is one reason why corruption has become endemic in the country.
But pointing out poor governance is one thing; making the heads of department accountable is another. The civil service cannot serve the public — the only purpose for which it exists — in any other way. Accountability ensures integrity in public service.
The auditor general has consistently highlighted, in report after report, leakages and wastages across government institutions. Yet some of these are repeat offenders, a clear indication that accountability isn't the priority.
The latest AG's report devotes some space to 202 ailing projects — ones that are delayed for more than two months — under the 12th Malaysia Plan. The 202 projects are under the purview of 19 ministries.
The AG has called for immediate implementation and strict monitoring of the "ailing" projects. Will this happen? No, if accountability is absent.
To eradicate corruption, two things must happen. First, the MACC must be free of corrupt officers. Granted that MACC officers are not as frequently hauled to court as other enforcement officers are, the graft-buster, by definition, must be squeaky clean.
Those who have a long memory will remember the case of a senior superintendent who pleaded guilty in the Sessions Court in February 2022 to a charge of misappropriating US$6.4 million in cash evidence linked to a major corruption case. This not only taints the image of the MACC, but also erodes public trust in it.
Without public trust, the MACC will only be half as effective. Second, the civil service must be ready, able and willing to get rid of corruption among its officers.
It will only be so ready, able and willing if it takes tough and uncompromising action against its errant officers. Anything less sends a message that corruption will be tolerated.