6,000 reports made under Whistleblower Act
By Rashvinjeet S Bedi, The Star
More than 6,000 reports of improper conduct have been received under the Whistleblower Act which came into force in December last year.
However, director in charge of the National Key Results Area (NKRA) on corruption D. Ravindran said it would take a while to determine if these reports were genuine or not.
He said the respective agencies were being advised on implementation and guidelines of the Act.
The agencies included the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC), the Road Transport Department (JPJ) and Immigration, among others.
He was speaking at a media briefing by Pemandu to provide updates on the six NKRAs in the first half of the year.
Ravindran said no one, besides the person making the report and the one receiving it, would know of the contents of the reports.
He added that those who divulged details of the reports to others, such as the media or individuals, would not be eligible for protection under the Act.
Under Section 11 of the Whistleblower Act, protection may be revoked if the whistleblower discloses the information to another channel.
Ravindran also said a recent survey commissioned by them found that 45% of Malaysians believed the overall perception of graft in Malaysia has improved, up from 28% in 2009 to 39% last year.
He said he was not surprised by results of the proxy survey to the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer, which was conducted from March to May by research company TNS with 2,000 people.
“There is more seriousness in fighting corruption,” he said, pointing out that 14 special corruption courts have been operational since February.
He also said 1,951 of 2,324, or 84%, of government contracts awarded have been subjected to a Ministry of Finance (MOF) integrity pact and that there were already 237 names in the corruption offender’s database, surpassing the 2011 target of 100.
