Jonathan Chai
KUCHING: The Sarawak Business Federation (SBF) is sceptical about the effectiveness of combating corruption by including a provision in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act to show the real beneficiary owners of companies.
SBF secretary general Jonathan Chai felt that anyone who intended to commit any corrupt practice would probably not declare any beneficial interest in the company.
At the end of the day, he said it would still boil down to how extensive and effective the investigation carried out by the anti-graft agency would be.
“It would be interesting to know when companies are required to make the disclosure – at the time of incorporation or when the company is subjected to investigation,” he said when asked to comment on the government’s proposal to include a provision in the MACC Act to show the real beneficiary owners in companies yesterday.
Chai, a practising lawyer, also wondered if an amendment to the Companies Act 2016 would be necessary.
“If every company is mandatorily required to make such disclosure, whether it would involve any amendment to the Companies Act 2016 9 (sic). Of course, there might be an issue of the right of personal secrecy because some people may nominate someone as his nominee for a valid reason which might not necessarily be illegal or unlawful,” he explained.
Having said that, Chai applauded any effort by the government to tighten the law on corruption.
“In any case, we need to study the draft of the proposed amendment before any comprehensive comments could be made,” he added.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced the proposal after chairing a meeting of the Special Cabinet Committee on anti-corruption in Putrajaya.
He was quoted as saying that the provision would enable the MACC to identify the real owners of any interest during their investigation.
“We find that some people use other people’s names, so the owners are different. We want to draft laws so that we can catch the real owners. We are aware that some people, in order to avoid, use other people’s names. But we want to get the beneficiary owners,” said Dr Mahathir.
He added that although the owners used other people’s names, the evidence would be found and action taken against the real owners.