Bar seeks legal reform as Malaysia slips in corruption rankings

 

The Malaysian Bar called on the government to institute comprehensive legal reforms to address corruption, which caused the country to slip in a global corruption perception index.

Among the reforms are amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act and Official Secrets Act.

The Bar’s call comes on the heels of the global anti-corruption coalition Transparency International’s findings that Malaysia suffers a "corruption crisis" amid the public health crisis linked to Covid-19.

This has led to the country slipping six rungs from 51 to 57 out of 180 countries ranked in the index for last year.

Speaking to Malaysiakini today, Bar president Salim Bashir (photo above) said the findings show that the government must seriously look at amendments to encourage more disclosures of acts of corruption.

“We are of the view that there are some legislation and mechanisms that need to be looked at; among others, the Whistleblower Protection Act needs to be amended, in particular Sections 6, 8, and 11 of the Act.

“This (amendment) is to empower disclosure of corrupt acts to any independent persons or bodies, and not mandating it to be reported only to government authorities and enforcement bodies,” he said.

Salim said the Act needs to be amended to include more categories of persons who can be shielded under the Act from potential negative repercussions over their reporting of corruption.

Section 6 deals with the disclosure of improper conduct to enforcement agencies and Section 8 is in regard to the protection of confidential information about improper conduct.

Section 11 is in relation to the power of an enforcement agency to revoke whistleblower protection in the event that the purported whistleblower himself had taken part in the disclosed improper conduct.

“We also call upon the Official Secrets Act to be amended to ensure greater transparency in battling corruption,” he said.

Salim said the government needs to also fast-track the Government Procurement Bill, which was mooted some time ago but has yet to materialise.

He said this must be done in order to ensure greater transparency in the process of handling government procurements.

In 2019, it was reported that the then Pakatan Harapan federal administration was planning to introduce the government procurement bill in Parliament, in order to replace various circulars and directives that governed procurement practices.

The proposed law was also intended to improve procurement rules and address persistent issues in government procurement like the widespread use of direct negotiations.

Salim also called on the Perikatan Nasional government to expedite the replacement of the Public Complaints Bureau with an independent Ombudsman Commission.

He said that such a commission should be empowered to investigate, audit, and report allegations of corruption to the authorities.

On Feb 2 last year, former advisory board member of the Public Complaints Bureau Lee Lam Thye reportedly urged the government to expedite the tabling of the Ombudsman Malaysia law.

Lee said this was necessary to help establish a body to enhance integrity and governance in addressing public complaints.

Salim also said there is a need for a public awareness campaign over the legal duty under Section 25 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act to report acts of corruption.

Section 25 deals with the duty of persons offered or given bribes to report such acts to the MACC or the police.

“We also hope that the recent amendments to include corporate liability under Section 17A of the MACC Act, would provide better room in tackling the battle against graft,” he said.

Section 17A, which came into force on June 1, 2020, stipulates a corporate liability principle, where a commercial organisation can be considered guilty if any of its employees and/or associates commit corruption for the benefit of the organisation.

The provision stipulates that the commercial organisation is also considered guilty - whether or not the upper management or its representatives know about the corrupt acts perpetrated by its employees or associates. - FMT