NGOs want Whistleblower Act amendments to be sped up

 

Anti-graft groups Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) and the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) welcomed the planned amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act but they hope it will be done quickly.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim earlier announced in his Budget 2023 speech that Putrajaya plans to amend the act this year to better safeguard whistleblowers.

He also said the government plans to table a Public Procurement Act as soon as possible.

However, he did not provide details of what the Whistleblower Protection Act amendments will be or when either of the bills will be tabled in Parliament.

“The announcement that the Whistleblower Protection Act will be amended this year to give greater protection to whistleblowers is commendable.

“Since whistleblowing is a powerful tool to fight corruption, the longer we wait, the worse corruption gets,” said TI-M president Muhammad Mohan (above) to Malaysiakini in his immediate response to the Budget 2023 presentation.

He also proposed some recommendations for the amendments that he hoped will be considered by Putrajaya.

First, he hoped the amendments will allow internal whistleblowing to be protected.

Currently, the act only provides protection to whistleblowers if they disclosed the relevant information to enforcement agencies.

Second, he said whistleblowers should be protected even if the disclosure would break any laws such as the Official Secrets Act, Penal Code, or any banking secrecy laws.

Lastly, he said, external whistleblowing should allow for disclosure to other bodies such as NGOs and not enforcement agencies only.

Independent oversight for mega projects

Muhammad also commended Putrajaya’s plan to table the Public Procurement Act this year.

However, he hoped that an integrity pact on independent oversight led by civil society organisations can be incorporated into the act for certain mega projects.

“Independent oversight is key to ensure mega projects are completed on time and within budget, as long as technical specifications are correct and competent contractors and vendors are appointed.

“Our current integrity pact practised for public procurement does not comply with international standards,” he said.

Meanwhile, C4 deputy chief executive officer Stanley Sudhagaran said the tabling of the Public Procurement Act and amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act are long overdue.

“We hope this is tabled urgently without any more delay in the coming mid-year parliamentary sitting.

C4 deputy chief executive officer Stanley Sudhagaran

“All three previous governments promised the same but failed to actually table it. We hope this prime minister will really walk the talk,” Stanley told Malaysiakini.

He said Anwar’s insistence on open tenders, as well as cancelling projects awarded via direct tenders, is a correct move.

However, Stanley noted that C4 was disappointed with the omission of several issues from the budget speech.

First, there was no mention of reforming the MACC, he said, adding that the public does not have much trust in the commission currently.

“It is key that the prime minister reforms this commission including replacing its commissioner via a parliamentary process and making it (MACC) report to Parliament.

“Also, there is a need to increase the budget for this commission,” he said.

Second, he said Anwar did not talk about regulating political financing, which C4 has long described as the ‘mother of all corruption’.

Stanley said political financing is a major issue that needs to be addressed urgently as there have been many cases ongoing in court, with the latest being Jana Wibawa, which were all linked to such practices.

Lastly, he said, the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) was not mentioned in Anwar’s budget speech, even though it is due in December 2023.

“In the NACP, there are many initiatives that need to be implemented including legislating new laws, such as the ombudsman law, freedom of information law, and so on.

“However, no mention was made about this which begs the question, what has happened to the NACP which is due this year?

“Is this government committed to carrying out the NACP? If yes, then why is there no budget allocation to ensure this is implemented by the deadline this year?” Stanley questioned. - Mkini