Private companies have been urged to ‘take the hint’ and follow in the footsteps of the public sector, which has put in place integrity officers to better combat corruption.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisor Tan Sri Hadenan Jalil said, this should be part of the private sectors’ commitment towards integrity aside from simply signing the Corporate Integrity Pledge.

“At the moment now, we have integrity officers in government agencies and some Government Linked Companies (GLCs). I think the private sector should also follow suit and do whatever is necessary,” Hadenan, the chairman of the MACC Operations Review Panel (PPO), told Astro AWANI.

Hadenan, who is also a former Auditor General and is a board member of several companies, was commenting on the latest research by KPMG, "Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Survey Report 2013".

Among others, the KPMG survey found that 90% of the 100 listed companies on Bursa Malaysia stated that fraud was part of the business cost in Malaysia.

The report also said nearly 80% of the respondents believed that bribery and corruption have increased over the past three years with 61% indicating that their companies lack adequate monitoring procedures on bribery and corruption.

Meanwhile, Hadenan also said that there was a need to beef up MACC capabilities.

“At the moment, we need more manpower and expert knowledge because it is quite difficult to deal with corruption in the private sector. I personally believe that unless we have expertise in terms of accounting forensic, and legal, it is quite difficult to prove corruption cases,” he said.

Hadenan added that there was a need to increase knowledge and awareness through education.

MACC has placed Certified Integrity Officers (CeIO), consisting of both MACC and other government officers in several government agencies. Last year, it was reported that there were already officers placed in the Education Ministry, the Road Transport Department, Customs, Immigration, Felda, Petronas and Prasarana.

The three main duties of these integrity officers were to detect abuse and corruption, preventing its occurrence and to increase awareness.

The integrity officers would also advise heads of department or top senior management on the matter.

In his speech while tabling the 2014 Budget, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said, an Integrity Management Unit will be placed in every government Ministry.

This is part of the larger Ministerial plan to have a Governance and Integrity (G&I) body, that will act as a watchdog spearheaded by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Paul Low.