CORRUPTION AND RELEVANT PENAL CODE OFFENCES

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) celebrated its 40th Anniversary (1967 – 2007) by hosting a talk and thanksgiving luncheon from 9.30am to 2.00pm on 30th Oct. 2007 at Full Gospel Assembly, Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuala Lumpur. This special celebration with Christians was organized by Malaysian Care.

After the welcome address by Malaysian Care Executive Director, Mr. Lee Chee Loi, the participants comprising about 120 representatives from different churches, Christian organizations and NGOs, participated in an inspiring worship service during which several pastors took turns to pray for the Agong and the Sultans, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, the Malaysian government, all those in authority, Malaysian citizens and last but not least, the team of ACA officers headed by the speaker, Mr. Yip Pit Wong, who is Senior Assistant Commissioner 2 of the ACA and also the Deputy Director of ACA Penang.

Mr. Yip gave a brief but interesting history on how the ACA was established. Next, he highlighted the various offences and penalties under the Anti-Corruption Act 1997. For many in the audience, it was the first time that they were introduced to these Sections of the Act such as soliciting/receiving/offering/giving gratification as inducements or rewards, giving false materials to mislead, bribing in order to obtain favours, using position/office for gratification, failure to report offers of gratification, making false statements in order to mislead the authorities, disclosing reports made to ACA, obstructing ACA officers from performing their duties, failure to explain excessive property and knowingly giving false information.

The more interesting part of the talk was when Mr. Yip related his work experiences and added humorous anecdotes which left the audience in stitches and injected life into an otherwise serious session. The more senior listeners were led down memory-lane to the 1950s when a bribe of 20 sen would enable a cyclist caught cycling at night without a bicycle lamp to escape paying a fine. This inducement slowly escalated to RM5 and then RM10 in the 1960s!

In his opinion, Mr. Yip remarked that throughout history, corruption when left unchecked, had led to the downfall of many countries. He quoted Vietnam in the 1970s as an example. Currently, the Transparency Index of Corruption of Malaysia stands at 5.3 compared with Singapore’s 9.4 (out of a score of 10). In comparison, the highest is Finland with 9.7 and the lowest is Bangladesh with 1.2. 

Our Prime Minister has consistently called for integrity and transparency in both the public and private sectors. Raising integrity and combating corruption are the greatest challenges faced by his administration. Thus he has called for support from ministries and agencies to carry out the mission of creating an honest and upright society. The recent concerted efforts of the ACA in exposing many cases of corruption, especially those in the higher echelons, are encouraging signs that the ACA is serious in eradicating corruption and increasing Malaysia’s Transparency Index.

The next focus was on the role of Malaysians in preventing corruption. Mr. Yip stressed that greed and opportunity are the main causes of corruption. He opined that any lay person is able to spot some of the symptoms of corruption around them such as the sudden change of lifestyle of a person or a person’s inability to explain the source of property acquisition. Using very interesting examples, Mr. Yip listed the effects and prevention of this crime.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. Yip encouraged every Malaysian citizen to assist the ACA by lodging reports on corruption to the ACA with this assurance:

PROTECTION OF INFORMERS AND CONTENTS OF INFORMATION

The identity of the person who gives information to ACA officers and the contents of the information are protected and cannot be disclosed or ordered to be disclosed in any court. Any part of the information pertaining to the identity of the informer shall be obliterated, concealed or kept secret. - Sec. 53(1) and (2) ACA 1997

The ACA which has its HQ in Putrajaya has a staff of 1820 throughout Malaysia to monitor its population of 26.5 million. Statistics of arrests during the last 5 years extracted from the ACA website show: 2003 – 339, 2004 – 497, 2005 – 485, 2006 – 546, 2007 (up to August) – 362. These cases are just a tip of the ice-berg hence co-operation of every citizen to assist the ACA is crucial to eradicate corruption.

In this regard, it was reported that on 3rd Nov. 2007, that Deputy PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the Government was willing to consider recruiting more ACA officers and for them to be stationed at various Government-Linked Companies and government departments and agencies to curb any short-coming and corruption.

Every state capital and Federal Territory has an ACA office and a Post Office Box 6000 (no stamp required) to receive information on corruption, e.g.

ACA TOL FREE LINE: 1-800-88-8844
E-MAIL: info@bpr.gov.my
WEBSITE: http://www.bpr.gov.my 

Information needed to assist investigations: date, time, place and a brief account of the incident, persons/witnesses connected to the incident, relevant documents, type and amount of gratification, other information (account number, receipt number, identity card number, vehicle registration number, house address, office, identity/personality etc.)

Uphold Integrity!! Eradicate Corruption!!

Sheila Ramayah