KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 – Malaysia has unveiled a new national anti-corruption strategy, which Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has said will involve financial incentives for members of the public who help the government in their anti-graft crackdown.
Such financial incentives are already currently offered to civil servants.
“In executing this strategy, we give money to officers, civil servants or even members of the public who cooperate,” Mr Anwar said at the announcement of the new initiative on Tuesday (May 7).
This comes following the country’s staggering losses of RM277 billion (US$58.4 billion) to corruption over the past five years, the chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said in a speech.
Mr Azam Baki said the RM277 billion estimate was based on the country’s cumulative gross domestic product from 2018 to 2023.
The loss comes even as the country implemented more than two-thirds of initiatives in its previous national anti-corruption plan, Mr Azam said.
“This enormous figure could have been used to help people in many aspects, especially in social projects like revamping hospitals and schools,” he said at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre on Tuesday.
“Therefore, to ensure the anti-corruption strategy really makes an impact, the (new) strategy was drafted using various methods to identify areas that are vulnerable to the latest risks of corruption.”
The new strategy, which covers similar risk areas like political governance and public procurement to the previous plan, puts more emphasis on a collective responsibility to fight corruption, including education in schools on the importance of eradicating graft.
