New Corporate Liability Law scheduled to be passed in March

KUALA LUMPUR: A new Corporate Liability Law scheduled to be passed in Parliament in March will see companies also been hauled for bribery instead of just the employees.
The move is also to make companies responsible for their action.
Minister in the Prime Ministers Department Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan said: "One of the biggest problem today is when an employee is caught by the MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) for bribery, it is the employee who will face the charges and not the company."
He said the law deals with the giver and taker of the bribe but does not provide liability for companies in cases of bribery.
"We know from many instances, employees give bribes at the instruction of the higher ups, if the bribe was a small amount such as RM50 we know it is the employee who paid, but if the bribe amounts to RM1million, we cannot deny that instructions were given out by the employer to pay the bribe," he said.
Low said the new law will take to task the employee who bribes and the company unless the organisation can prove that it had put adequate preventive measures in place to stop the bribe.
"This could be a game changer, it would allow companies to take responsibility for corruption and be very careful. It would transform the business sector entirely to tackle corruption in the country," he said.
Low explained that the law which is already used in various European countries like Britain and even in the United States will be good for the country on the whole as it will have many benefits like attracting more foreign direct investments.
"Without the law, companies can blame the employee and wash their hands off the issue, "he said at a press conference at the MACC open day ceremony in conjunction with the International Anti Corruption Day today.
Low said there are many areas when dealing with corruption and thus called for institutions to be strengthened like the judiciary, police and the Attorney General Chambers so that corruption does not seep in.
"We see that countries that have weak institutions are always littered with bribery and corruption, hence it is important for Malaysia to build up our institutions for check and balance," said Low.
The forum titled "Break the Corruption Chain" featured four guest speakers, Petronas chief integrity officer Datuk Samsiah Abu Bakar, SME Corp CEO Datuk Hafsah Hashim, Pemudah chairman Datuk Saw Choo Boon and executive director of Top Glove Corp Berhad Lim Cheong Guan.
Hafsah said that Malaysia's 50th spot ranking in the world's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is the best it has been, especially since Malaysia is 2nd place in all Asean countries except Singapore, who is first among all Asean countries and 7th in the world ranking.
"We must look at Singapore and emulate what they are doing so that we can progress in our battle with corruption," she added saying that we must also find ways to emulate Scandinavian countries like Denmark and Sweden who are ranked number one and number four respectively on the CPI.