KUALA LUMPUR: A trusted monitoring system is crucial to ensure a smooth implementation of the five-year National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) to produce more honest Malaysians, says Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute Centre of Public Policy Studies chairman Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam.
He said it would be useful for the NACP to provide the public with half yearly reports to show the progress made to achieve the plan’s goals and targets by 2023.
“The plan is encouraging and purposeful. Public expectation has been raised substantially by the aim of the NACP to achieve a corrupt free society in just five years,” he said in a statement.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad launched the plan yesterday which replaced the National Integrity Plan of 2004.
It has 22 strategies and 115 initiatives and together, the focus is on politics, public procurement, law enforcement, public sector administration, legal and judiciary and corporate governance.
Ramon opined that the plan should also be implied by the government in raising efficiency and reduce red tape within the government.
“The public offer bribes mostly due to delays in obtaining approvals for licences, permits, awarding of contracts and land alienation for property development or cultivation.”
“Thus, if the efficiency in government administration is improved further, I believe the opportunities to demand and pay bribes will be reduced considerably,” he explained.
Ramon added that basic needs like education, health and housing, for example, could be provided with priority given to the poor in the B40 group while the rich could be encouraged to pay more for these services. — Bernama
