PUTRAJAYA: Companies and the public must remove the culture of fear over investigations or audits by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and other enforcement agencies in ensuring the country is free from the scourge of corruption and abuse of power.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed who said this, however, opined that the MACC should also strike a balance by finding ways to avoid the image of the government departments or agencies, companies and individuals investigated from being tarnished and the public from judging them before they were proven guilty.
“This is because the public perception is that if the MAAC is investigating politicians, government officers, corporate management figures or other individuals, they were bound to be involved and having influence in big-time corruption.
“If there is a case, the MACC will continue investigating. If there is no case, it will be dropped. Sometimes, there is collusion in a government department or company which makes if difficult for the MACC to carry out the investigation and to prove the case due to involvement of the top management right down to the bottom,” he said at the Corruption-Free Pledge signing ceremony of the National Registration Department (NRD), here, yesterday.
Meanwhile, he added, the whole ecosystem of a department or company must be transparent so that corruption and abuse of power could be detected and prevented early.
Nur Jazlan also noted that when he was the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chairman, he had called on department heads to ensure public order and to raise public trust in the government.
MACC deputy chief commissioner (Management and Professionalism) Datuk Seri Mohd Jamidan Abdullah, in his speech, stressed that the commission would never victimise anyone in conducting its investigations into corruption and power abuse cases, but the investigations were based on facts.
“We are open-hearted in carrying out our investigations and are not deliberately trying to find fault. If it’s not a real scandal, we will not put anyone in a bad spot. All is done with utmost sincerity.
“Now we see many wearing the MACC lock-up clothes. This is not meant to humiliate them but to indicate these are corruption-related matters,” he said.
On the event, Mohd Jamidan said the NRD was the 16th department at the headquarters level to have signed the Corruption-Free Pledge, showing their honesty, sincerity and commitment to working in a more conducive and corruption-free environment in carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to them by the public.
Also present was NRD director-general Datuk Mohd Yazid Ramli. — Bernama