PUTRAJAYA: Starting next year, operators and suppliers in the water supply and sewerage services industry have to allocate 1% of their annual operation budget to carry out integrity programmes.
Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Dr Xavier Jayakumar said the initiative was to curb offences on governance in the water services industry involving the implementation of integrity programmes such as audit, risk assessment, monitoring, training and communications.
He said the matter was in the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Framework For Licence Holders and Certified Agencies in the Water Services Industry launched here today.
He said compliance to the framework would become one of the special conditions imposed by the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) when awarding or renewing water supply and sewerage operator licence.
“With better integrity practice by industry players, corruption will be reduced so that operators and suppliers could improve the quality of water services to the people,” he said in a media conference after launching the integrity framework. Also present was SPAN chairman, Charles Santiago.
Xavier said the framework was created in line with the 2019-2023 National Anti-Corruption Plan which outlined five basic principles that have to be adhered to by water industry players on areas such as top management commitment, risk analyses, control measure implementation, monitoring, evaluation and systematic enforcement as well as training and communications.
Meanwhile, Santiago said according to a Transparency International report, most water crisis in the country occurred due to the lack of governance and the presence of corruption and these issues are occurring in Malaysia based on media report in which several water operators were investigated by the authorities for corruption and abuse of power.
He stressed that SPAN as the regulatory body of the water services industry practises zero tolerance against corruption and based on this factor, the top management, staff, water supply and sewerage operator contractors as well as certified agencies are required to comply with the integrity framework launched today.
“The primary objective of the framework among others is to eradicate corrupt practices and abuse of power among operators and their suppliers in the entire supply chain,” he said. — Bernama
