Amendments to be made to Whistleblowers Protection Act to ensure complete confidentiality, says Wan Junaidi

KUALA LUMPUR: Amendments will be made to the Whistleblowers Protection Act 2010 to ensure the complete confidentiality of those providing information about corruption and abuse of power, said Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar.

The move to amend the Act comes after weaknesses in existing laws led to an extremely low number of whistleblowers being protected for divulging information on corruption.

"Since 2011, 73,554 informers have come forward to provide information but only 527 were given protection under the Act.

"This is an extremely low ratio," the Minister in charge of Parliament and Law said when replying to a question raised by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PH-Port Dickson) in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Nov 16).

Junaidi, who is Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, also cited an example where in 2015, only four informers were protected under the Act although 12,627 had come forward to provide information.

As such, he said that a committee was formed to look at amendments to the Act which will be tabled to the Cabinet this coming December.

He said the proposed amendments will cover several provisions in the Act to ensure complete confidentiality of informers.

"There are weakness in the present system.

"For example, an informer in the police department has to provide information to his superior and there may be leaks," he said.

Wan Junaidi, however, acknowledged that apart from structural changes to the law, there also needs to be political will to ensure that informers in high-profile cases are protected.

More to come