MACC has spent RM1 million on the living expenses of its officers during the 13th GE

According to the answer from Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Dato’ Razali bin Ibrahim in Parliament on September 26, 2013, MACC has spent RM1 million on the living expenses (perbelanjaan sara hidup) of its officers during the 13th General Election.

First of all, RM1 million on living expenses alone for an election that lasted 15 days was definitely not a small amount. MACC should provide a breakout on how this RM1 million was spent, spent by whom, and spent for what.

2ndly, after paying so much for the MACC officers’ living expenses, taxpayers deserve to know what our MACC officers have observed during GE13. Did they spot on any breach of the Election Offences Act?

According to Dato’ Razali bin Ibrahim, MACC has received 82 complaints. However, only 7 are currently being investigated. The rest were all thrown out.

It is shocking that after spending RM1 million on the living expenses of its officers during GE13, MACC only noticed 7 potential breaches of the Election Offences Act.

On the contrary, citizen monitoring group Pemantau, which consists of Bersih, Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) and human rights group Pusat Koma, has noticed more than 7 electoral irregularities.

With 2,000 election observers, PEMANTAU only managed to observe 23 Parliament seats on nomination day, 51 seats during the campaign period, and 87 seats on polling day. However, its observers noted alleged incidences of bribery involving money or other goods in 5 constituencies observed (22%) on nomination day. During the campaign period, bribery involving valuable consideration and other goods were reported by PEMANTAU in almost half of all constituencies observed (23, or 45%) while money was allegedly given out in 19 constituencies (37%). On polling day, where PEMANTAU observers reported acts of bribery in 16 of the constituencies observed (18%).

PEMANTAU with very limited resources was not able to cover the whole country throughout the campaign period. But, people of Malaysia would expect MACC with RM1 million allocations for its officers’ living expense and many other resources, to cover all the constituencies and found out more election irregularities than PEMANTAU. It is unacceptable that so far MACC only found out 7 potential breaches of election offences. Rakyat of Malaysia want to know their money is worthily spent, especially after Malaysia is perceived as the second most corrupt country in the region, after Indonesia.