PUTRAJAYA, Oct 1: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will no longer accept poison-pen letters on cases of corruption or abuse of power unless they are accompanied by “complete and strong” documents for investigation purposes, its chief commissioner Azam Baki said today.
He said the anti-graft agency did not want any individual or party to be victimised because of the letters.
“I urge the public to furnish information on cases with the assurance their identities are kept a secret and protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010,” he told Bernama.
He said even if a poison-pen letter was sent to the MACC, it would scrutinise the letter first to determine its contents.
“For example, upon receiving a poison-pen letter containing complete documents, MACC will verify it to determine if the information can be trusted and utilised before conducting any investigation.
“We will not entertain a poison-pen letter which only makes accusations. We will only respond if the letter contains a name or an email (address),” he said.
Previously, he said, MACC had received many poison-pen letters but most of them did not contain grounds strong enough to warrant further investigation.
Asked if MACC could take action against MPs or assemblymen who jumped parties, Azam said it did not have any legal provision to bar politicians from doing so.
“It is outside the jurisdiction of MACC. It is up to the MPs to draw up a law (on party hopping) if there is a need to do so. MACC will only conduct investigations if there are elements of corruption (politicians being paid to jump party),” he said.
To date, he said, there was no evidence of such cases taking place but there were instances of certain parties who had furnished information but declined to give their cooperation.
