PRIME Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob has tabled the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) in the Dewan Rakyat announcing that the Government will allocate RM400 bil for existing and new development projects.
Public projects can be very costly as big sum of money are being spent by the Government for these mega projects.
This allows for those involved in awarding the projects to take opportunity to abuse their power and commit corrupt practices.
The situation is made worse where some mega projects are awarded through direct negotiations and limited tenders to their cronies or certain companies.
Even in the open tender, it should not be tainted by corruption and bid rigging.
According to the World Bank, it is estimated that 20%-30% of budget for public contracts goes to waste.
This finding matches with what former Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang predicted that up to 30% of Malaysia’s public projects’ value was lost owing to mismanagement and corruption.
Consider the amount of savings the Government would have obtained if it paid 30% less for goods and services the contractors and vendors provided out of total RM400 bil in the 12MP.
If left unchecked, the present crisis may develop into a worst-case scenario and one can expect another full-blown corruption scandal.
The Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki stated that corruption cases resulting in leakages and wastage of Government procurement involving civil servants (the top leadership) are seen to be increasingly and topped the significant financial loss list.
Approximately 50% of such cases involve Government agencies (decision makers) due to abuse of power and unlawful manipulations of the procurement process.
When there is a leakage of Government procurement, investigation shows that there is an element of corruption that causes a certain value of procurement to rise.
Ambrin has said, simply giving oral warnings to erring civil servants is not sufficient and ineffective.
Under current laws, civil servants who are off the hook for abuse of power and corruption due to insufficient evidence or other technicalities merely face internal disciplinary action.
New laws, digitalisation vital
The MACC is of the opinion that without a specific law to address such misconduct, it may become a loophole for the offenders, who may simply be let off with a mere disciplinary action.
To overcome this problem, MACC is pushing for laws known as Misconduct for Public Service Act to punish civil servants who cause high losses in public funds through negligent and unethical practices in their respective Government departments with criminal charges.
In Hong Kong, this common law carries the maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.
The law could act as a powerful deterrent and key “weapon” against those who are tempted to abuse their powers.
It is to send out a strong message to wayward public servants that they cannot escape after causing substantial losses to the public coffers while discharging their duties, even after they are cleared for offences of corruption and abuse of power.
Some suggested that the definition of Misconduct for Public Service should include ministers and also politicians.
The ministers are also responsible for the final decision in awarding the ministry’s contracts.
The auditor-general’s department should be given the power to conduct spot checks on big Government projects when there is are red flags that the company which has been awarded projects is engaged in false claims or fraudulent activities.
This will also assure the public that the projects are being monitored, which will act preventive measures to reduce leakages, losses or low quality and non-quality constructions.
When there is a project delay, costs will increase, and it will be the taxpayers’ money which will be used to rescue the project with additional cost.
As such, when contracts are awarded there should be a mechanism of continuous monitoring to ensure that the projects are progressing according to the timeline agreed upon in the contract
Usually, the existing “sick projects” or incomplete projects are mostly awarded by direct negotiations based on technical “know who”.
Contracts should be awarded to those with evidence of reliability, capability, responsibility and with a good track record of both technically and financially.
As a matter of good governance, a proper checking on the pricing and due diligence on the contractors should be conducted before awarding the contracts.
Nowadays getting information via the Internet is easy, especially on the market price.
Modernising Government payments and collections through digitisation can help policy makers achieve these goals.
The Finance Ministry should introduce a “flying squad team” to check the completed projects before payments are approved to be paid to the contactors
Ideally, the public budget process should allocate public resources in a strategic, transparent, accountable, fair and democratic way.
Unfortunately, this ideal is rarely met.
In the absence of the culture of integrity, no one will bear the responsibility or feel embarrassed by their wrongdoings while corruption would get further aggravated.
Point to ponder: After 11 Malaysian Plans covering 55 years, it is still necessary to build more physical projects?
We do not need the costly mega projects that entail more tenders and procurements where unethical public servants tend to abuse powers or manipulate via direct negotiations and cronyism. – Oct 25, 2021.
Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar is the former president of Transparency International Malaysia.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
