PETALING JAYA, June 27 ― Putrajaya will vet all ministerial aides for elements of crime and graft, Datuk Paul Low said today, as part of the government’s efforts to rein in corruption.
The minister in charge of integrity and transparency said these aides will be screened by both the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to obtain a clean bill of health for employment.
“The role of a special officer is an important one as in some cases they act as a gatekeeper to the minister and are privy to highly confidential information,” Low (picture) said in a statement.
Aside from the two screenings, the aides must also declared their full assets on an annual basis to the prime minister, the minister to whom the aide reports and the MACC.
Ministers also make a similar asset declaration to the prime minister, but details are not publicly released, ostensibly for security reasons.
“By putting these measures in place, opportunities for misconduct to occur will be minimised,” Low added.
The former head of Transparency International Malaysia was tapped by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for a spot in the Cabinet, in an apparent bid to burnish his administration’s graft-fighting credentials.
But Low came under almost immediate attack from opposition figures, beginning with his swearing in as minister prior to his appointment as a senator.
He was also tarred as an “apologist” for the administration by the DAP following the country’s slide in the 2013 Revenue Governance Index (RGI) published last month by the New York-based graft watchdog Revenue Watch Institute (RWI).
The fiercest criticisms against Low came, however, when he said there was no need for an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) following renewed calls after the recent spate of custodial deaths, claiming that another agency — the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) — could fulfil the same role.
Low had been a vocal advocate of the IPCMC during his days as president of TI-M.
