PETALING JAYA, July 5 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) figures on its conviction rates in 2012 and 2013 that were released yesterday are higher than the statistics given to Parliament earlier, PKR’s Rafizi Ramli (picture) said today.

The PKR strategy director pointed out that the MACC said in a statement yesterday that its conviction rates for 2012 and from January to June 2013 are 85 per cent and 89 per cent, respectively ― far higher than the 67 per cent and 34 per cent figures provided to Parliament last Wednesday for 2012 and January to May 2013 respectively.

“I doubt the remaining cases could be disposed with so speedily in just one month, (going) from 34 per cent to 89 per cent,” said Rafizi at a press conference at the PKR headquarters here.

Rafizi also stressed that the number of people coming forward to the MACC was very low ― at 0.02 per cent per capita ― compared to its Hong Kong counterpart, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), which has received three times more information at 0.06 per cent.

“This has everything to do with confidence in SPRM,” said Rafizi, referring to the MACC by its Malay initials.

The Pandan MP, who runs a whistleblowing organisation, also questioned the MACC’s criteria for opening investigations.

“What’s the threshold before a case is considered worthy of investigation?” said Rafizi. “For me, unless you have a formal document, I won’t start an investigation.”

Rafizi had questioned in Parliament about the MACC’s success rate after the graftbuster revealed that it only investigated 20 per cent of complaints received in 2011 compared to the ICAC’s 77 per cent hit rate.