SURVEYS SHOW MALAYSIA ON RIGHT TRACK IN FIGHTING GRAFT

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is on the right track and
starting to make an impact in fighting corruption although, at the same time, it
still has a much work to do, said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission
(MACC).

Its Director of Delivery and Monitoring Unit for Corruption National Key
Result Area (NKRA), Hisham Nordin, said the IMD World Competitiveness
Yearbook, World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report and Political and
Economic Consultancy Asian Intelligence surveys all revealed an increase in
scores.

"We use these surveys as comparisons as they are the only ones that are able
to provide data for both 2009 and 2010. MACC is not in any way trying to deflect
attention from the poor Transparency-International Corruption Perception
(TI-CPI) index score.

"All we are saying is that there are also surveys that have shown us
improving in our fight against corruption. We want the rakyat to know that as
well. No one is citing success yet but we are definitely on the right track," he
said in a statement, here Wednesday.

Malaysia maintaned its position of 56th out of 178 countries in TI-CPI 2010
but slightly dropped in the score of 4.4 from last year's 4.5 out of a perfect
10.

Hisham said although the TI-CPI score might not be satisfactory, it
ironed
out a clear path as to where the country should be heading in its continuous
fight against graft.

"Our unit works closely with the Performance Management and Delivery Unit
(Pemandu) and we accept the TI-CPI score in its entirety even though it is far
from flattering. There is absolutely nothing to hide," he said.

However, he said the MACC and Pemandu were not discouraged because they knew
what had been done and put in place to fight corruption under the Government
Transformation Programme (GTP).

"These robust initiatives are still in their early stages of implementation
and we are confident they will yield the results we want," he said.

Hisham said the TI-CPI score only strengthened their resolve to work even
harder to ensure that corruption was significantly reduced in this country.

Since the NKRA efforts wereinitiated in January this year, the government
had endeavoured to put in place appropriate mechanisms that would help reduce
corrupt practices, he added.

Among them were naming and shaming the corrupt offenders, provide guidance
in support letters, disclosing government procurement contracts, whistleblower
protection, completing corruption cases within a year and 'hot job' rotations.

Hisham said more serious and effective actions need to be taken in 2011.

-- BERNAMA