48% not aware MACC exists

selangor custom assistant director ahmad sarbani mohd. 56,fell to his death at kl macc hq

KUALA LUMPUR: A survey of Malaysian Chinese, aged between 16 and 45, showed that almost half of them are clueless about the government agency, which handles complaints about corruption.

Some 48% in a survey of 216 people by the Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia (Huazong) replied “no” to the question “do you know which agency to report bribery to?”

“Among the 92 people who are aware of such a body, only some know its exact name,” said Huazong Youth president Ong Chong Keng.

Other respondents thought that the agency to report to was the Election Commission or the police, he told reporters here yesterday.

While corruption cases were investigated by the police in the past, anti-corruption efforts have been undertaken by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) since 1967.

The ACA’s name was changed to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in 2009.

The study, called the Integrity and Corruption Survey, was conducted among Malaysian Chinese nationwide from various sectors including government, banking and construction.

It was carried out between October and December by the Huazong Youth’s Integrity and Crime Prevention Bureau.

Ong urged the MACC to create greater awareness on how the public could contact the commission and hire more Chinese officers to improve communications with the community.

The survey also found that 78% of the respondents thought it was acceptable to take free meals from contractors who were interested in doing business with them.

Some 54% of the respondents also believed it was acceptable to take company stationery home.

“Taking company stationery home may seem harmless but it could be considered as mismanagement of company resources,” Ong said.

For traffic rules, the study showed that 54% of the respondents thought it was reasonable to speed depending on the situation.

Among its recommendations, Huazong Youth urged all political parties to support amendments to the MACC Act to introduce corporate liability so that transparency can be upheld in the private sector.