Bosses don’t see the need to involve MACC

PETALING JAYA: Employers believe that there is no pressing need to involve the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to catch workers who make false sick claims.

Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan said it would not be easy to prove that an element of corruption exists on cases of false claims.

“For example, if a doctor is purposely issuing ‘fake MCs’ for a fee. If it can be proven that he did not not examine the patient and is producing MCs, perhaps then the issue of corruption may arise,” he said yesterday.

Shamsuddin said offenders could also be creative if need be.

“The person who produces the MC may have stolen the document from somewhere else or even forged it. In those kinds of situations, I don’t think the issue of corruption ever arises at all,” he added.

Shamsuddin also said that many companies would not bother with the trouble of pursuing recourse via the MACC for these sort of matters.

“The hassle of going through the entire process may not be economically justifiable. When a company takes action internally, it’s much easier and would take a shorter time as compared to if they involve other institutions,” he added.

MTUC secretary-general N. Gopal Krishnan said it was mostly an issue of misconduct but not corruption.

Using anti-corruption laws to reel in malingerers was unnecessary as such offences are different from corruption.

“If the worker knowingly bought the medical certificate, I would view that as simply cheating rather than corruption,” he added.

“The majority of the companies are handling these sort of issues internally. I don’t think the MACC has to be involved.”

Yusuf Embi, 64, principal of quantity surveyor firm Yusof Associates, said that a big multinational company might be more inclined to involve the MACC.

“If it’s small firm, you don’t need to involve the MACC.

“Small companies tend to be more ‘forgiving’, whereas big companies have SOPs (standard operation procedures) and they have no time to be personal,” said Yusof, who is an employer of 33 years.

Chief business officer of IT company Softspace, Joel Tay, 35, said there were faster and more effective ways to curb malingerers, instead of using anti-corruption laws.

Instead of involving the MACC, he suggested that a Health Ministry officer pose as a patient to catch doctors issuing MCs for money.

Tay said he allocated a certain amount of money for employee MCs, and if a worker went through the year without one, cash would be given to them as an incentive.

“It cuts the amount of MCs by 70%. And the ones that take the MCs are those who really need them,” he added.