SHAH ALAM: People succumb to corrupt practices mainly because they want short cuts to get the necessary approvals easily and their task done quickly, says Anthony Loke.
The Transport Minister said the delay in getting the necessary paperwork and obtaining approvals may be due to some procedures that are too bureaucratic or troublesome.
“So, some of the procedures might be a source for corruption.
“What we need to do is review all the procedures to make things easier and one way of doing it is digitalisation as well as implementing a single-window mechanism,’’ Loke told reporters after witnessing Port Klang Authority (PKA) receiving the Certificate of Compliance for the Anti-Bribery Management Systems (ABMS) ISO 37001:2016.
The Minister also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between PKA government agencies, terminal operators, and key industry players representing the port users to work together, share information, knowledge, expertise, and intelligence, and conduct joint investigations to combat corruption.
According to Loke, when ships come calling at the ports in Port Klang, they would just need to go to one platform to get clearance from all the relevant agencies under the single-window mechanism.
“Now they have to go to various agencies manually to get approval and when they don’t get approval according to schedule, there is a tendency for people to pay to get faster approval,’’ said Loke.
He added a single-window will mean there won’t be a need to deal with counter services and this will reduce corruption.
Earlier, Loke also urged civil servants to not succumb to corruption and said there would be better pay and benefits if the nation was rid of graft.
“Let’s have a higher income in the halal way,’’ said Loke.
He also said companies need not be involved in corruption to do business in Malaysia.
“We are here to facilitate business to be conducted in a friendly manner and with integrity,’’ added Loke.
On another matter, Loke said investigations were underway to seek the cause of the fire that destroyed 13 shipping containers belonging to Northport (Malaysia) Bhd recently.
To a question if there was a false declaration of goods involved in the mishap, Loke said he did not want to make any conclusions.
However, he added, investigations will cover every aspect, including the false declaration of goods (that were being carried in the containers).
