Latheefa calls on private sector be be ready for new corporate liability offence

MACC has called on the private sector to get ready for the implementation of Section 17A of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, a new statutory corporate liability offence that will come into force on June 2020.

Chief commissioner Latheefa Koya said people in the corporate sector must know about the provision which was passed in Parliament in April 2018 with two years grace period before the provision was implemented.

She said commercial organisations must comply with the provision by putting in place adequate measures to combat bribery.

"People need to know (about the provision) because there's a clause which states that it is a defence for the company if they have in place adequate anti-corruption measures.

"So, this is the challenge for them to make sure that their organisation put this measure in place," she said.

Latheefa told media after attending the convocation ceremony of the eight Certified Integrity Office programme in Kuala Lumpur that Section 17A was quite well defined and it was about how MACC would enforce the provision.

She said MACC is on track to implement the corporate liability provision.

Section 17A of the MACC Act establishes a new statutory corporate liability offence of corruption by a company, and the company director, partner, officers or manager can be liable for the same offence.

The offence carries a penalty of not less than 10 times the sum of the gratification or imprisonment of not more than 20 years.

Corporate organisations can raise a defence if they can show that they have "adequate procedures" in place.

Latheefa said the provision would be the starting point for awareness and compliance of all commercial organisations to close loopholes for bribery.

Earlier, Latheefa witnessed the graduation of 182 new integrity officers.

She said there has been a sudden increase of requests from private organisations for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Academy to train their staff as integrity officers. - Mkini