ACA reports RM45 million bribes in 10 months

KUANTAN: Bribes exceeding RM45 million changed hands during the first 10 months of the year, said Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general Datuk Ahmad Said Hamdan. [The Star, 13/11/08]

The ACA director-general stunned the public with his agency's latest findings when he spoke at the opening ceremony of the Leadership With Integrity Seminar in Kuantan. Ahmad Said revealed that a total of RM45 million worth of bribes have exchanged hands in the first 10 months of this year.

The ACA was said to have successfully nabbed 548 people guilty of corruption; 252 of whom were civil servants and 296 from the private sector. The agency also managed to seize property worth RM8.8 million and collected RM1.3 million in fines in the same period.

"What is interesting is that based on the statistics, there is an obvious change over the past few years whereby, there was a dip in the number of public officers arrested for corruption as compared to those in the private sector or individuals," said Ahmad Said. [The Malaysian Insider, 14/11/08]

According to Ahmad Said, the ACA will continue to strive against corruption in all sectors of society with additional 5,000 officers and staff being added to their workforce by the year 2012.

Malaysians would be pleased to know that the ACA was willing to get their hands dirty with the corrupt and dissolute in the civil and private sectors. However, the readiness of the agency to probe scandals involving big names of society or government (if any) still remains an unconvincing dogma. The ACA is currently under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department and unless the body is separated and be made independent, the agency might find its hands tied when the interests of certain high-profile individuals or companies have to be protected.

Nonetheless, the ACA should still be commended for their recent exposé in the total amount of bribes and the arrests of those guilty for the breach of integrity for the past 10 months. Therefore, it is imperative Ahmad Said and his men continue to build on this little triumph of theirs, lest they forget that there is still more needed to be done in the cleaning up of society.