Give the MACC more bite in fight against graft, MPs told

PARLIAMENT: AT THE DEWAN RAKYAT LAST WEEK

ANTI-graft group Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) is lobbying for parliamentarians to enhance the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) enforcement rights.

C4 founding director Cynthia Gabriel said the group drafted a memorandum with the Bar Council, which includes recommendations to amend Sections 23 and 36 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, that she said currently limited graft busters from investigating those with suspicious wealth.

Other recommendations in­­clu­­­ded the setting up of an independent legal services commission to ensure investigations were done transparently and the securing of the chief commissioner’s job for a certain number of years so that he could conduct probes on high-ranking government VIPs without fear of ramifications.

“We want amendments to allow MACC to carry out their enforcement better. Under the present laws, MACC can’t, for example, go after people who just appear to be living beyond their means.

“Under the law, they first have to prove these people paid for their properties through fraudulent means,” she said during a panel on corruption and government accountability by C4 and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus yesterday.