Anti-Graft – Much Ado About Nothing?
I fully share the PM’s sentiments - the just-concluded three-day United Nations millennium summit in New York attended by 159 world leaders is a complete wash-out, waste of time and money, producing an Outcome Document on development and reform that exists only in name. No reform of the security council, no progress on poverty, debt reduction, disarmament, human rights council or peace-building commission.
The Star headline “Much ado about nothing – Abdullah disappointed with impasse on UN reform” sums it up most succinctly.
Except that “Much ado about nothing” (which incidentally appears in the print but not the online edition of The Star) also sums up Pak Lah’s 23-month premiership of the wide-ranging reforms of government which he had pledged on becoming the fifth Prime Minister on October 31, 2003.
If more proof is needed, it can be found in another Star report today “Kayveas: Graft at its worst in local councils”.
DPM Najib and Works Minister Samy Vellu do not know that the construction sector is “choked with graft”, and do not believe it when the Malay Contractors Association president, Datuk Roslan Awang Chik said so at the “Integrity in the Construction Sector” forum organised by the Malaysian Institute of Integrity, with the former asking for proof and the latter challenging Roslan to report to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).
But Deputy Minister in the PM’s Department, Datuk M. Kayveas knows – and he says that “corruption is at its worst in the local authorities”! Could it be that Kayveas is better informed than both Najib and Samy Vellu?
Is Najib going to ask Kayveas for proof and Samy Vellu to challenge Kayveas to report to the ACA? If he fails to do either, what is going to happen to Kayveas?
Corruption in local authorites worse than corruption in the construction sector? What are the government departments or sectors where corruption is worse than both the local authorities and the construction sector?
Why such a sorry state of corruption despite the mushrooming of national integrity courses and seminars in all the ministries and government departments up and down the country for nearly two years, costing of tons of public funds to pay for, among other things, integrity-enhancing functions like karaoke and cigar-smoking sessions? And the DPM and a 26-year Cabinet Minister bliissfully unaware of such rife and rampant corruption in the country?
Thailand’s “Iron Lady”, Jaruvan Maintaka, the country’s first auditor-general whom the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra wants to remove because she knows too much about corrupt politicians, shady tycoons and multimillion dollar rip-offs in her country, estimates that corruption in state-related projects costs Thailand in excess of 400 billion baht (RM36.8 billion) every year.
Is the Malaysian Auditor-General, the Anti-Corruption Agency or the Malaysian Institute of Integrity in a position to estimate the costs of corruption in government-related projects in Malaysia every year?
The Star headline “Much ado about nothing – Abdullah disappointed with impasse on UN reform” sums it up most succinctly.
Except that “Much ado about nothing” (which incidentally appears in the print but not the online edition of The Star) also sums up Pak Lah’s 23-month premiership of the wide-ranging reforms of government which he had pledged on becoming the fifth Prime Minister on October 31, 2003.
If more proof is needed, it can be found in another Star report today “Kayveas: Graft at its worst in local councils”.
DPM Najib and Works Minister Samy Vellu do not know that the construction sector is “choked with graft”, and do not believe it when the Malay Contractors Association president, Datuk Roslan Awang Chik said so at the “Integrity in the Construction Sector” forum organised by the Malaysian Institute of Integrity, with the former asking for proof and the latter challenging Roslan to report to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).
But Deputy Minister in the PM’s Department, Datuk M. Kayveas knows – and he says that “corruption is at its worst in the local authorities”! Could it be that Kayveas is better informed than both Najib and Samy Vellu?
Is Najib going to ask Kayveas for proof and Samy Vellu to challenge Kayveas to report to the ACA? If he fails to do either, what is going to happen to Kayveas?
Corruption in local authorites worse than corruption in the construction sector? What are the government departments or sectors where corruption is worse than both the local authorities and the construction sector?
Why such a sorry state of corruption despite the mushrooming of national integrity courses and seminars in all the ministries and government departments up and down the country for nearly two years, costing of tons of public funds to pay for, among other things, integrity-enhancing functions like karaoke and cigar-smoking sessions? And the DPM and a 26-year Cabinet Minister bliissfully unaware of such rife and rampant corruption in the country?
Thailand’s “Iron Lady”, Jaruvan Maintaka, the country’s first auditor-general whom the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra wants to remove because she knows too much about corrupt politicians, shady tycoons and multimillion dollar rip-offs in her country, estimates that corruption in state-related projects costs Thailand in excess of 400 billion baht (RM36.8 billion) every year.
Is the Malaysian Auditor-General, the Anti-Corruption Agency or the Malaysian Institute of Integrity in a position to estimate the costs of corruption in government-related projects in Malaysia every year?
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