PETALING JAYA: While there may have been incidents where civil servants were coerced into accepting bribes, cases investigated by the anti-graft body revealed that it is the givers who are pressured to give, says Tan Sri Azam Baki (pic).
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner said while he is not ruling out claims by the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) that certain civil servants were pressured into accepting bribes, his investigators have never handled such cases directly.
“Throughout my over three-decade career in the anti-graft agency, I have never investigated such cases. Neither have I ever received information from my officers on this when a public servant is called for questioning over allegations of corruption.
“But what we have come across in the course of investigations is persons being probed for offering bribes claiming they gave under duress as they were pressured to do so by certain civil servants to have their proposals or applications viewed, recommended or approved,” he said.
Azam was commenting on a recent revelation by Cuepacs that civil servants were forced to accept bribes due to pressure from certain parties.
Azam, however, said there had been cases probed where some public service officers had complained of being sidelined or boycotted by their peers for not wanting to be on the take.
He explained the scenario where a group had been offered an inducement and the majority of them had agreed to take the offer, except for a few.
“The minority in the group would be treated as if they are not part of the gang. We have come across such instances.
“I am not sure if this is what Cuepacs is referring to but as far as we are concerned, we do not consider this scenario as officers being forced to accept bribes.
“This is because they were not forced to take but were merely sidelined and not treated as a team member for not taking bribes.”
Azam said that civil servants who are pressured to accept “rewards” should report it to the MACC or the police to safeguard themselves from being accused of accepting bribes.
“If they can’t come physically to make a report, we have e-mail addresses and even phone lines to take their complaints.
“We have different avenues to accept reports, it is just whether one wants to do so or not.”
He also highlighted that the Whistle-blowers Act is a measure taken to safeguard those who want to lodge complaints, not just about bribery attempts but also other wrongdoings.
On Cuepacs’ statement that the root of the problem are the ones offering the bribe, Azam said the law is equally severe against both the giver and the taker.
“The argument doesn’t hold water. As much as one must not give, one must not accept also, even if it is forced upon them,” he said.
In November last year, the MACC said that 3,173 reports were filed against civil servants for bribery in the first nine months of the year, and the commission has opened 544 investigation papers.
Cases of people receiving bribes top the list with 275, followed by false claims with 129, abuse of power with 74, Anti-Money Laundering Act offences with 17, six cases of giving bribes, one Penal Code violation, and 42 cases under other sections.
On Feb 11, Transparency Inter-national Malaysia released Malay-sia’s score and ranking on the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2024 where the country scored 50 out of 100. Malaysia ranked 57th out of 180 countries for the year.
