PUTRAJAYA: Low salary scales and high cost of living are not
the main factor for corruption among the support group in the civil
service, according to a survey by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission (MACC).
On the contrary, corruption is caused by
individuals' own weaknesses such as greed and having the desire to live
in wealth and luxury despite not having the means to attain them.
Internal
shortcomings in an organisation such as weak leadership, opaque system
and procedure, the existence of bureaucratic red tapes and extensive
discretionary powers open up the opportunities for corruption.
Is
corruption on the rise among civil servants?
MACC corporate
communications director Datuk Ahmad Khusairi Yahaya said there was a
decline in the number of corruption involving the group in 2007, 2008
and last year.
This, he said, showed that the level of integrity
and awareness among civil servants on the scourge of corruption and
their responsibility in battling corruption were on the increase.
In
2007, a total of 591 people were arrested for corruption. Of the total,
51% or 303 were members of the civil service.
The number
decreased to 282 civil servants or 47% of the total number of arrests of
605 in 2008.
There was a sharp decline last year when only 194
or 39 per cent of 500 people arrested were civil servants.
Statistics
also showed that the number of corruption charges against civil
servants were on the decline in the past three years.
In 2007,
133 charges were brought against civil servants. The number went down to
104 in 2008 and further declined to 90 last year.
Among the
reasons for this were the success of programmes introduced by the
government and awareness campaign by MACC community education division.
The implementation of corruption prevention modules in induction
courses, promotion of officers and the introduction of government
policies including on public delivery system and the setting up of Good
Governance Committee contributed to the better figure.
Following
an increase in awareness, members of the civil service were becoming
more forthcoming in reporting offer of bribes, leading to the arrest of
bribe givers, Ahmad Khusairi said.
For instance, he said, in
2007, a total of 89 civil servants came forward to report bribe offers.
In 2008 and last year respectively, there were 81 and 79 officers who
reported attempts to bribe them.
Ahmad Khusairi said between
January and this month this year, 14 civil servants came forward to
report bribery attempts.
"This is an encouraging trend.
Integrity, which the government is trying to imbibe among the civil
servants, is becoming a reality," he said.
In line with this
development, he said, the MACC would carry out a massive anti-corruption
campaign to nab those who tried to bribe civil servants.
Civil
servants would also be constantly reminded of their obligation to report
corruption under Section 25(1) of the MACC Act, failing which they
could be fined up to RM100,000 or jail not more than 10 years or both
upon conviction, Ahmad Khusairi said.
He warned the public not to
attempt to bribe civil servants.
"The law will come down hard on
them, including a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of not less
than five times the amount of bribe or RM10,000 whichever is higher," he
said. - BERNAMA
Source
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