When Corruption is Endemic…

The Edge has been bringing us some really incisive, sizzling stories in the recent years, enough that I have no problem forking out RM5 per week to read some juicy findings.

This week’s lead story confirms what we know all this while. Here’s the dirt.

A recently completed audit on recipients of open APs (approved permits) revealed fraudulent transactions, forged documentation and ill-equipped entities supposedly importing cars. Apparently, 8 out of 10 recipients were found to have flouted the rules or undertaken fraudulent transactions with forged documents.

To curb the abuse, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), which oversees the allocation of open APs, had last month imposed new and more stringent conditions, as well as refined and introduced new guidelines on open AP allocation.

The audit, which was conducted recently by accounting firm Ernst and Young, MITI, Royal Malaysian Customs and the Road Transport Department, found that 70 out of the 89 open-AP recipients audited had breached the rules set by the government, failed to display proper financial accounts or did not have management teams to conduct their businesses.

Breaches include the forgery of documents for open AP application and cases of non-bumiputera owning shares or acting as financial controllers or signatories of cheques. The recipients also allegedly commissioned other companies to facilitate the sale of the imported vehicles using the open APs.

More dirt at … http://dansemacabre.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/when-corruption-is-endemic/