GTP 2.0 - Prime Minister's Office of Malaysia

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vIEWs FRom thE DElIvERy maNaGEmENt oFFICE (Dmo)
Corruption tends to be something that Government
agencies would prefer to deal with in private, rather
than have an external party tell them what to do.
However, this is essentially the role of the Fighting
Corruption NKRA – as the bee in the bonnet of the
agencies.
Essentially, the NKRA’s objective is to get Government
to adopt greater transparency and accountability standards
in everything they do, and though there has
been some success the road has not always been easy.
The ANTI-CORR NKRA’s DMO officer Shuhairoz Shukri
says the transition to working in the DMO required a
fundamental change in mentality. A civil servant from
the Ministry of Transportation, she joined the Delivery
Management Office in April 2010, and was immediately
assigned to work on key initiatives including
establishing Compliance Units, creating the Name
and Shame database and working with the special
corruption courts.
“I considered myself a junior officer when I started
here, but the work required that I liaise with senior
officers in ministries and agencies,” she says. “The
PEMANDU style is different from what we’re used to
at the ministries and establishing the relationships
was difficult at first.”
Shuhairoz adds that because the ANTI-CORR NKRA
was aiming for broad-based holistic change, various
stakeholders were involved in all its initiatives, and
getting full internal co-operation was sometimes difficult.
For instance, in the case of the Compliance Units
initiative, she often needed to visit each agency to
discuss implementation issues with them.
“It’s not that the agencies don’t want to accommodate
us, but they already have a fixed culture of doing
things,” she says. “It has got easier now that I’ve
worked with them for two years.” One of the most difficult
aspects of the job, she says, is being accountable
to the public because most of the transformational
work happens behind the scenes.
“Unlike other NKRAs where you can see roads being
built or new classes being held, most of what we do
in the NKRA is intangible,” Shuhairoz says. “We fix
laws, speed up cases and establish databases, but
the public can’t always see the impact right away.”
Despite better rankings from international agencies
on Malaysia’s corruption levels, Shuharioz says that
while it is a positive development it is not enough.
Despite the international recognition, she says corruption
is a problem that affects the rakyat on a highly
personal level, and she will not personally be content
until the rakyat themselves report that the problem
has been solved.
“I won’t be happy until my friends and people I meet
on the street tell me that corruption is no longer an
issue. That’s when I know my job will be done,” she
says.
Going forward, Shuhairoz believes that the most important
initiative in GTP 2.0 by the NKRA will be the
special workstream will be the special workstream
aimed at educating school children to be aware of corruption.
“We need to focus on children and I want that
to be the most successful initiative over the next three
years,” she says. “We need to build a generation that
not only recognises the problem of corruption, but
will co-operate with authorities to fight it in future.”
Government transformation Programme—Annual Report 2012 Chapter Five
The NKRA invites all Malaysians
to join in the fight against
corruption and to turn this corner
in Malaysia’s development.
89
• Have given something to smooth transactions
• Have been offered a bribe
Experience
• Have witnessed bribes being offered or asked for
Value
• It is OK to give a bribe to smooth transactions
• It is OK to accept bribes
• It is OK to accept bribes if people do not find out
• It is OK to accept bribes if you have the power to approve contacts and tenders
• It is not wrong to accept gifts from people who apply for tenders or contracts
Sources: Joint study between Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and MACC, 2002 and 2007
The ANTI-CORR NKRA will take steps in GTP
2.0 to help raise awareness about corruption,
particularly among students and youths, because
key teachings must be learnt at the formative
stage. As indicated in the table below, surveys
have shown greater number of youth have
become more accepting of corruption as a a way
to get things done in Malaysia. The ANTI-CORR
NKRA sees this as a distressing development, and
will do all it can to reverse this trend over the
course of GTP 2.0.
2002 2007
4.2%
N/A
21.2%
16.1%
11.2%
26.7%
2002 2007
15.0%
5.1%
8.7%
10.4%
37.6%
26.8%
16.3%
23.5%
21.1%
48.9%
The ANTI-CORR NKRA is convinced
that corruption can be eradicated
in Malaysia, and the country’s
improvement in CPI rankings is
evidence of that possibility. The
NKRA invites all Malaysians to join
in the fight against corruption and
to turn this corner in Malaysia’s
development.
Government transformation Programme—Annual Report 2012 Chapter six