KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 ― Corruption in public procurement has a direct correlation to the increase in cost of living, said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

This was because the amount of money received as gratification in any public project would add to the final cost, MACC deputy chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali told a forum.

“This will jeopardise everything, cost of living, cost of building...” he said at the 5th Annual National Procurement and Integrity Forum for Public and Private Sectors 2016, here today.

Mustafar was responding to a participant who asked whether corruption had any influence on the rising cost of living.

Earlier, when presenting a paper on Addressing Procurement Corruption, he said it was estimated that corrupt practices cost the country up to two per cent of the gross domestic product.

This indicated that “such practices do not only disrupt individual businesses but have far wider impact across national social and economic development,” he said.

In improving the situation, Mustafar said, Malaysia climbed to sixth place in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report 2014 by reducing the number of physical interaction required for permits and approvals.

“This indirectly also limits the opportunities for corruption to take place,” he added. ― Bernama