Dr M: Businesses to be compelled to reveal real owners

The government will introduce new provisions for anti-corruption laws to compel businesses to reveal the real owners who reap the profits.

In announcing this, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the decision was made after they found that many beneficial owners registered their businesses under other people's names to avoid detection by the authorities.

He added the government was aware that some of the owners used the names of their proxies to avoid action by the authorities.

"(The cabinet) wants to include new provisions in the MACC Act on the responsibility to reveal beneficial ownership (of businesses).

"Because it had been found that many times, other people's names were used when (the businesses) were actually owned by someone else.

"So we want to amend the laws so that action can be taken against (beneficial owners). We will identify the actual person involved," Mahathir said.

He said this during a press conference after chairing a meeting of the cabinet's special committee on anti-corruption in Putrajaya today.

The meeting, which was the sixth since the committee was set up after Pakatan Harapan took over in May last year, discussed a total of seven proposals pertaining to anti-corruption measures.

Another proposal that was discussed during the meeting concerned a move to inculcate moral values that cautioned schoolchildren against corruption.

Mahathir said the committee found that such values must be instilled in Malaysians from a young age, and thus the Education Ministry would be tasked with focusing on the building of students' character.

"Concerning education, we want to instil good moral culture among Malaysians and this has to start from young.

"The Education Ministry has to place its focus on character building, which is to inculcate good values among schoolchildren.

"Because the parents today are not capable of doing so, with both parents working and having no quality time to spend with their children.

"Education on culture and life values must be delivered in schools, and this will be done throughout the students' time in school," he said.

Mahathir added that anti-corruption slogans would be introduced to show them that corruption is a serious crime and destructive to the nation.

Launch of National Anti-Corruption Plan

During the press conference, the premier said they also discussed the launch of a National Anti-Corruption Plan.

He said that under the plan, all members of the administration and heads of services must also champion the effort to combat corruption.

Regarding efforts to promote integrity in government spending, Mahathir said the committee found that there were many weaknesses in the government's financial management.

Among them, he added, was the large sums spent on off-budget expenditures.

"Sometimes the off-budget claims are higher than the budgeted (allocation) itself.

"So now we are going to determine certain conditions for off-budget provisions. There will be a ceiling (on off-budget claims) and other conditions." - Mkini