Pakatan Rakyat questions MACC for drop in prosecution

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat questioned the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) for the drop in prosecution, despite the increase in the budget allocation for 2013.
Dr Ko Chung Sen (DAP-Kampar) said that for every case convicted within a five year period, the government has given an average amount of RM707,744 and fined an average amount of RM34,892.87.
"This is at best, a return of 4.9%. Now, what's alarming is that in 2013, despite a massive increase of 24% in the budget to more than a quarter of a billion ringgit from 2011, the total number of cases convicted has actually dropped by 31.7%.
Ko had asked the prime minister to state in Parliament the breakdown of the amount of graft money involved in the cases investigated by MACC for the past five years and also the number of prosecutions and convictions involved.
He said that from the statistics given, it shows that there was a gradual increase in the budget allocation from RM202,280,000 in 2010 to RM211,288,500 in 2011 and RM251,672,000 in 2013.
However the amount that was fined dropped from RM14,570,799 in 2012 to RM11,567,130 in 2013.
According to the written reply given by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Senator Datul Paul Low Seng Kuan, there were 1078 cases opened and 811 cases completed in 2012 with 401 cases prosecuted and 339 convicted.
However, in 2013 only 27% of the 976 cases were convicted.
In total for a period of five years from 2008 to 2013, 5,517 graft cases were opened but only 1,395 convictions were recorded.
"So, not only was the MACC not catching the big sharks, the little fishes were getting away.
"Ever since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak took office, he has repeatedly declared his determination to fight corruption.
"Unfortunately, despite the higher funding in tackling graft and bribery, corruption in Malaysia seems to be increasing, as found by auditing company KPMG, in January 2014," Ko said.
He said about 90% of corporate executives have agreed that bribery and corruption were among the major problems for businesses in Malaysia.