Yaacob (centre) speaking during the press conference. With him are EAIC vice-chairman Tan Sri Dr Zulkefli A Hassan (left) and EAIC commissioner Dato Sri Robert Jacob Ridu. — Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) has proposed for enforcement agencies under its jurisdiction to inform it of disciplinary actions taken by them.
Its chairman Datuk Yaacob Md Sam said this would strengthen the effectiveness and functions of EAIC.
“This is among the proposed amendments to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission Act 2009 (Act 700), which was recently submitted to the Attorney General’s Chambers,” he told a press conference after officiating the EAIC dialogue with Sarawak and Sabah enforcement agencies at a leading hotel here yesterday.
He pointed out that the commission’s proposed amendments would make it compulsory for enforcement agencies to let EAIC know of disciplinary actions to be taken by them.
“Upon completion of disciplinary proceedings, they should inform on what sort of sentence or penalty has been imposed by the disciplinary body so that we will know what it is.
“Once this law is passed by the Parliament … maybe by next year, it will be enforced and disciplinary bodies should come back to us on what type of punishment has been imposed on the perpetrators,” he remarked.
Nevertheless, Yaacob emphasised that the proposal was not intended to allow the commission to interfere in the decision made by the disciplinary bodies.
“I must stress here that at no time are we interfering with the jurisdiction or discretionary power of respective disciplinary boards because they are the bodies set up under their own specific law or Federal Constitution,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Yaacob suggested that enforcement agencies such as the police and Immigration Department have their own lockups in order to manage detainee efficiently and overcome congestion in lockups.
“There are lockups in Sarawak and Sabah, which have been gazetted, but do not have a limit on the number of detainees that can be detained in a lockup or cell,” he said.
He also revealed statistics on deaths of detainees, noting that there were 242 cases of deaths of detainees from 2000 to 2014.
“In Sarawak, seven detainees died during the same period while Sabah recorded nine deaths. These deaths were caused by several factors with health being the main factor,” he said, adding that other causes of deaths were hanging in lockups, fights among detainees and so on.