Malaysia drops in corruption survey: TI-M

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has dropped a notch in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2016 survey, Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) said.

Its president, Datuk Akhbar Satar, said Malaysia has been ranked 55 among 176 countries with a score of 49 out of 100.

In the CPI 2015 survey, Malaysia was ranked 54 out of 168 countries with a score of 50 out of 100.

Under the TI-M scale, 100 is perceived as very clean and a score of 0 is ranked as highly corrupted. The survey measures perception of corruption in 176 countries.

Akbar said the one-point drop is not so significant as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), under new management, has proven its effectiveness in tackling high profile cases last year.

“The raids by MACC also saw their officers seize millions of ringgit and arresting high profile figures. These are among the factors that contributed to the rankings,” Akhbar said at the launch of CPI 2016 at the Royal Selangor Club yesterday.

Despite dismissing the significance, Akhbar expressed his concerns with the latest decline saying that there is a lack of political will in tackling corruption with merely lip service instead of walking the talk.

“Do not just nab (corrupt) government officers, the authorities should look at nabbing (corrupt) politicians as well.”

To improve our ranking, Akhbar suggested several measures including introducing corporate liability provision into legislation.