KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — The country’s anti-corruption agency should check ministers and the chiefs of government-linked companies (GLCs) for living beyond their means, anti-graft watchdog National Oversight and Whistleblowers said today.

The non-governmental organisation said that such lifestyles are one of the main corrupt practices in Malaysia, stressing that close monitoring and early prevention by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is required when national wealth and taxpayers’ funds are at stake.

“MACC’s monitoring of those who live beyond their means should not be limited to the secretaries of ministers.

“Instead, MACC also needs to monitor the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers, senior ministers, senior government officers, GLC directors, lawmakers and their family members,” the watchdog’s director Akmal Nasir said in a statement today.

These individuals should be made to declare their assets before their appointment and also regularly and at least every two years throughout their tenure, he added.

MACC should then make public its findings to help prevent the problem of living beyond means, he said.

NOW’s statement comes after an MACC spokesman reportedly said last week that the commission is monitoring the private and political secretaries of Cabinet ministers that were allegedly living beyond their means.

The MACC spokesman told news portal Malaysiakini that the commission could not simply carry out raids without evidence of illegal transactions or alleged corrupt practices, adding that it is seeking for a new law that would enable it to compel those under suspicion to make an asset declaration.

Last month, the MACC detained a federal minister’s private secretary in Kuching to probe allegations that the man had made false claims of up to RM500,000.