KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 24 — Malaysia’s success in improving its reputation in Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2019 has been a proud achievement for the country, but all stakeholders have been reminded not to ease off, and continue the fight to eradicate corruption.
Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) deputy director-general, Datuk Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff said the country should maintain the good momentum in improving the country’s score and position in the index.
He said the scoring was based on several surveys and expert evaluation that looked at various factors in a country, including democracy, openness to foreign investors and economic factors.
“I believe that we (Malaysia) can do better… so it is important for us to understand how TI calculates the score and how the government can devise strategies to achieve a high score.
“In order to rise further (in the index), every other aspect or factor also needs to improve… (for example) we need to be a country where investors feel comfortable to do business in, and (be) a more democratic country. This is not a one-party effort, but involves all agencies and ministries,” he told Bernama, here, today.
Malaysia went up 10 spots to number 51 out of 180 countries in TI’s CPI for 2019, showing improvements in tackling corruption.
Malaysia’s score also rose to 53 out of 100 points in the CPI survey, a six-point increase from the previous year.
The CPI scores and ratings are based on 13 observations and evaluation by experts that measure the level of corruption perceptions in the public sector, on a scale from zero (most corrupt) to 100 (most clean).
Meanwhile, Anis Yusal said Malaysia’s success in improving its rank in 2019 was due to changes in the government sector, and the new government’s commitment to fighting corruption.
He said the effort, however, should not only be led by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) but also together with other government agencies.
“The disclosure of misconduct by the MACC is good, but it is useless if only the MACC is involved. As I said earlier, the CPI is determined by various factors involving various agencies. We can’t be happy just yet. This is just the beginning, we need to see how we can sustain it,” he said. — Bernama
