Dr Sim (right) places his hand on a scanner to launch the ministry’s Integrity Day 2020, accompanied by Penguang (on his right), Antonio (third right) and others.
KUCHING: Sarawak must inculcate a culture of integrity as it heads towards high-income status in the next 10 years, said Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He noted that these 10 years will be critical for Sarawak as the state embarks on many development projects and programmes, in line with the roadmap to ensure Sarawak achieves high-income status by 2030.
“We have started revenue reengineering, started looking for money ourselves.
“Let 2020 be the year for us to start the integrity culture so that in the next 10 years (when) Sarawak becomes prosperous and strong we can show to everybody else that we can maintain it because we have integrity,” he said prior to officiating the ministry’s Integrity Day 2020 Tuesday.
Dr Sim pointed out that the people of Sarawak placed high emphasis and had high expectations towards the state government, particularly for a clean government administration.
“Being part of the government machinery, we must reflect that the Sarawak government is clean, transparent and driven by people who are of high integrity whom they can count on.
“We are going in the right direction to instill good governance into our ministry and the local government system and build the integrity capacity of the people who manage it,” he said.
Dr Sim also hopes that the seven officers from the ministry and its agencies, who have been selected to attend the Certified Integrity Officer programmme by Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), will return to their organisations with plans to implement and put into practice what they have learnt in the programme, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year.
Dr Sim also cautioned those in the frontline to be always careful and not to get “trapped”.
“Because you never know when people will record your voice, or take your visuals. As frontline administration, one must take care.
“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to move Sarawak in the next 10 years, to make Sarawak prosperous and strong so that we can do everything on our own, be it health, education, trade office overseas, our own internal security,” he said.
He urged those who took the corruption-free pledge to uphold integrity, transparency and public accountability in exercising their duties.
A total of 400 personnel from the ministry and its various agencies took the pledge.
Also present were Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing Datu Dr Penguang Manggil, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing Datu Antonio Kahti Galis, Chief Integrity and Ombudsman Unit officer Zulhairy Zaidel and others.