KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is still in the best group of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2016, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Razali Ibrahim.
“The CPI is a study of the views of corruption by international businessmen in Malaysia. It cannot be used as indicator to compare between 2016 and 2015.
“The CPI is to assist the government to improve the administration by adopting the findings of the study,” he said in a question and answer session in Dewan Rakyat here, yesterday.
According to the CPI, Malaysia is ranked 55, still in the best one third group of 176 countries involved in the study.
In Asean, Malaysia is ranked third best out of 10 countries, he said replying to a question from Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) on whether the government was satisfied with the CPI ranking decline from 54 in 2015 to 55 in 2016.
Razali said the latest ranking was good since there were nine more countries in CPI 2016 which contributed to Malaysia’s ranking for the year.
The CPI score and ranking are determined by the level of perception of corruption in a country’s public sector based on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
The deputy minister said the ranking did not affect the economic situation and assessment since Malaysia continues to gain the trust of foreign investors.
“The recent visit of King Salman Abdulaziz (of Saudi Arabia) brought an investment of RM40 billion.
“They will not come to invest if this country is in bad shape. The confidence is still there although sometimes the score goes up and sometimes it goes down.”
Razali said the government will continue to view the findings seriously and will make efforts to improve the administration.
He hopes that Malaysia’s CPI 2016 ranking will not be politicised by certain parties.
“Of course we are unhappy when there are complaints about corruption among our civil servants.
“That is why the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) is carrying out its duties to curb corrupt practices,” he added. — Bernama