Cases involving 99pct of 'graft money' escape law

Despite a higher conviction rate it boasts, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission failed to recover 99 percent of estimated "graft money", and did not take those responsible for this to court, a DAP MP said.

"(US think tank) Global Financial Integrity (GFI) reported that Malaysia lost RM871 billion in 2001-2010 in illicit financial outflows and graft accounted for 20 percent of these.

"So, the amount of graft money investigated was only 0.07 percent of the total amount, with only 0.02 percent of the amount recovered," Kampar MP Ko Chung Sen (right in photo) told reporters.

The government has said that in the past five years, cases brought to court involved RM57.7 million in graft money, and the total amount recovered was RM17.013 million.

Ko said that despite the increase in budget and personnel for the MACC, the number of cases prosecuted and conviction rate have actually dropped.

MACC's budget has grown to RM251.67 million in 2013, compared with RM161.03 million in 2009, while its personnel have increased from 1,795 to 2,331 over the same period.

The total budget from 2009 to 2013 amounted to RM983.12 million.

A surge in conviction rate as well

The total number of cases prosecuted from 2009 to June 2013 is 1,692 - a total of 174 in 2009 compared with 162 from January to June this year.

However, there was a surge in the cases prosecuted in 2010 (435 cases) and 2011 (520), before dropping slightly to 401 cases in 2012.

The conviction rate has also gone up from 54 percent in 2009 to 89 percent in the first six months of 2013.

Ko added that while the GFI did not state the portion of illicit outflow that involved graft in 2011 and 2012, the total illicit outflow had increased, compared with 2010.

This, he said, raised concerns that the graft portion had risen correspondingly, especially with "larger (federal) budgets and mega projects like the MRT.

"This is money we don't have and our national debt is pushed to the limit. The MACC has failed the country and the people," Ko added.