SANDAKAN: The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) fully supports the long-overdue move of the government to curb corruption under its transformation programme.Its Sabah secretary, Catherine Jikunan, yesterday said taxpayers expected the Barisan Nasional to lead a clean government and to show good leadership example to the civil servants.
To prove their seriousness and sincerity to curb the problem, she said the government must deal with every corruption case fairly.
“The government must also practise transparency, accountability and fairness irrespective of race, culture and religion,” she added.
Consumer Association of Sabah (CASH) vicechairman Ali Bin Amat said it is timely that the government is seriously tackling corruption under its Transformation Programme (GTP) Roadmap.
Failure to do so would see the people ‘transforming’ the Barisan Nasional into the opposition during the 13th general election, he said.
Ali hoped that the GTP is not a political gimmick and he urged all sectors concerned to make the programme a success for the wellbeing of the nation.
Under the GTP Roadmap, minimum jail sentences based on the severity of offences will be adopted under the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission Act.
In addition, harsher penalties will also be meted out to convicted public officers (civil servants and members of the administration, legislature and judiciary), as public trust and funds are involved.
Convicted public officers will be removed from their positions, lose their pensions and other benefits as well as be barred from future public appointments.
Under the current act, no minimum sentence is stipulated if an individual is found guilty of corruption.
There will also be longterm sanctions addressing the private sector.
Currently, convicted offenders are not blacklisted and can still participate in government procurement.
Government contracts will include clauses that subject convicted offenders to instant termination of contract without compensation as well as a five-year ban from participating in any public contract.
A name-and-shame approach in the form of a public database of convicted offenders in graft cases will be implemented as an additional deterrent against corruption. However, only convictions from Jan 1 this year onwards will be in the database.
DAP Sandakan chief Anthony Teo also welcomed the GTP but he lamented that the unnecessary delay in the approval of government transactions and the lack of knowledgeable junior staff at the information counters would encourage runners.
He said these runners collaborated with certain “bad apples” of some government departments and agencies, and this would create loopholes for these civil servants to be involved in corruption.
Teo suggested that all government application forms must be simple and have checklists so that the required particulars can be submitted to the department concerned.
He lamented that in most cases, there are a lot of uncertainties.
Junior government civil servants who are not knowledgeable, must not be stationed at the information corners to avoid further confusion.