New oversight body to fight graft soon

To combat corruption, leakages and mismanagement of public funds, the Government is in the midst of building a new framework – an oversight body called the Governance and Integrity (G&I).

The G&I body is to form collaborations or joint ventures with each ministry and this might be mirrored at the State level as well, according to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low.

He said introducing the G&I was a big part of his plan to bring about sustainable change in terms of fighting for transparency, integrity, governance — the three items in his portfolio aside from human rights.

“Many people think fighting corruption is a ‘quick bang’, which means achieving success in a very short time. You can't do that. The main issue is, I want to ensure that there is no cosmetic changes,” Low told Astro AWANI recently.

He said although the public would naturally be sceptical of the G&I, he insisted that this new initiative would be able to “lay the building blocks” to place the necessary structures to fight corruption.

Astro AWANI understands that there is no specific timeline for this framework as it is being built for the long haul. Following the 2012 Auditor-General’s Report, several ministries have already begun to work with Low’s department in setting the foundation of the G&I.

“When I speak about the G&I body, people will automatically say, ‘here he goes again, another body, another committee’. But then, how do you institute changes if we don't bring a group of people to be the catalyst of change?” he said.

Low said the G&I entity would involve outside experts as well as ‘comprehensive engagement’ from each ministry, from top to bottom.

“We will look at the procurement process and its transparency.

“We will also look through the Auditor-General’s report and the root causes of the problems. We’ll figure out ways to implement changes and incorporate internal control systems and accountability,” he said.

He added that his department was also scrutinising the laws which needed to be changed, in the Government’s point of view, to boost transparency.

“We also need to look at how we interact with the private sector and if there’s a need to form certain partnerships. We’ll also look at reporting and how we measure some of the successes and failures.”

Low said each ministry acts like a big, multi-level corporation. To inject change, a there needs to be “champions within the ministry” – in the form of integrity officers.

“Some ministries have about 100,000 people, the size is quite big. How do you inject all-round good governance from top to bottom?

“We’re looking at placing integrity officers and bringing internal auditors to work with them. We also need to look at the communicate process and change the culture,” he said.

In terms of engaging with civil society, Low said some ministries might have the need to engage NGOs and interest groups, especially those which are serving them.

“For example, if you are in public works, you obviously have to engage all those in construction to form a coalition to bring them on board, so that they will be able to actively participate in helping you to eradicate corruption within the industry.”

When probed for more details, he said the current explanation is a simplistic overview of the plan.

“I’m talking about this in very simplistic terms. In reality, we have flowcharts and so many other things to depict the processes we are going to do.”