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Asset data can help those falsely accused of corruption

Wednesday, 25 January 2012 08:19am

©The New Straits Times (Used by permission)
by Farrah Naz Karim

PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission said asset declarations can help those wrongly accused of corruption.

A MACC source said yesterday that as an independent body, the commission was open to helping those falsely accused of corruption.

“This is important for people in high office, such as ministers and judges.”

He was alluding to a proposal by the MACC Corruption Prevention Advisory Board that ministers and deputy ministers, as well as their immediate family members, make statutory declarations of their assets and for the copies to be kept by the commission.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday expressed support for the proposal (see page 8). MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said the proposal should also cover top government officials, including secretaries-general and directors-general, as well as their spouses.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was among those who welcomed the proposal.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz last week said ministers and their family members should not be subjected to rigorous requirements, such as declaring their assets to MACC, as they were not duty bound to declare their assets to the commission, but only the prime minister.

MACC’s task, he said, was to investigate if there were irregularities.

The source said: “MACC, as an independent body and the one that checks on corruption, should be privy to these details.

“At the end of the day, when a dispute arises and the high-profile individual is falsely accused of corruption, he might need help to clear the air.”

He said provided the individual’s declarations were in order, MACC could, with his permission, make public his asset status and explain the findings of the case levelled against him.

He also said the commission’s task force, set up to advise the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) in drawing up a mechanism for judges’ asset declarations, would recommend that judges submit copies of their declarations to the commission for assessment and monitoring.

MACC, in working with JAC on the asset declaration mechanism, was also asking that judges declare their assets each time they received a promotion, or every three years, whichever came first, he said.

It was finalising the methods to be used to assess the assets of judges and was expected to finalise things for use in about two weeks.

He said the asset declarations for judges might mirror the auditing system used by the private sector, rather than the formula used for civil servants.

The civil servants’ module covers family members’ incomes, sources and value of assets in possession or those sold off.

Judges are not regulated under the public service general orders as they are governed by the judges’ service scheme. Hence, they submit their asset declarations to the chief justice for assessment.

Last week, Chief Justice Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria said judges might soon have to declare their assets to ensure greater transparency and integrity in the judiciary, saying that the judiciary would work with MACC, with the latter deciding how to go about it.

The proposal was supported by former chief justice Tun Zaki Azmi, who said it would lead to greater transparency and make judges more cautious, while serving as a deterrent if there were dishonest ones.

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