PETALING JAYA: Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) has urged the government to implement Integrity Pacts and appoint Independent Expert Monitors (IEMs) for the RM4bil Kota Madani smart city project in Putrajaya to ensure accountability and curb potential corruption risks.
TI-M president Raymon Ram said large-scale public projects like Kota Madani should not proceed—let alone be expedited—without strong oversight mechanisms in place.
"The scale and complexity of Kota Madani demand that transparency be embedded at every stage, not applied after the fact," he said in a statement issued on Saturday (Oct 18).
He noted that while the Government Procurement Act (GPA) 2025 introduced welcome reforms such as uniform procurement rules, conflict-of-interest disclosures, and criminal penalties for bid manipulation, it still lacked provisions for external monitoring.
"This presents a critical governance gap—particularly for high-risk, high-value projects like Kota Madani," he said.
Raymon explained that pairing Integrity Pacts with Independent Expert Monitors could close that gap. These monitors, he said, are neutral professionals with access to procurement records and authority to detect early warning signs of corruption or irregularities and report them to relevant authorities.
He added that Malaysia already has the necessary frameworks to support such measures, including Treasury Circular PK 1.6, the GPA 2025, and the National Anti-Corruption Strategy 2024–2028.
"Bringing these frameworks together in a flagship project like Kota Madani would demonstrate the government’s seriousness about procurement reform," he said.
He noted that procurement-related complaints made up the majority of public grievances reported to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission last year, adding that embedding IEMs from the start would strengthen governance and rebuild trust in government-led projects.
"Oversight does not slow development; it strengthens outcomes and enhances legitimacy. Integrating Independent Expert Monitors within an Integrity Pact framework would be a confident step toward restoring public faith in how national projects are managed," he said.
