Ernest & Young’s recent survey of business executives that Malaysia is highly corrupt will only be confirmed by the excesses, wastage and financial wrongdoings exposed in the 2012 Auditor-General(AG) Report amounting to RM 6.5 billion. DAP Member of Parliament for Serdang Ong Kian Ming had estimated a total of RM 6.5 billion was involved in the 64 cases of questionable dealings in Federal government agencies studied under the 2012 AG report.
The 2012 AG’s Report had highlighted the repeated annual problems of overspending, under-utilised, sub-standard or paid well above market prices in the procurement of works, goods and services such as:-
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RM1.3 milion worth of equipment by the police force that went missing, including 156 handcuffs, 44 weapons and 29 vehicles were missing.
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the Department of Broadcasting’s purchase of 20 wall clocks at RM3,810 each, 38 times more than the estimated RM100 each, and three A4 size scanners at RM14,670 a unit, more than 70 times the estimated price of RM200 each;
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the Customs Department’s having to destroy RM600,000 worth of shoes it had purchased because they did not suit its officers;
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the Melaka state government’s illegal building of its Customs and Immigration Quarantine Complex on private land, which eventually cost it an extra RM10.8 million to compensate the landowner, plus an extra RM40 million in building costs that had shot up because of the delay;
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Ministry of Youth spending RM3 million excessively and imprudently for the National Youth Day celebrations, including RM 1.6million to bring in K-Pop groups from Korea.
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RM1.3 billion in additional costs over the USD 2.3 billon Bakun Dam project and paying USD$133 million (RM430 million) in compensation to two foreign contractors for losses incurred which suffered delays of up to four years in civil engineering works; and
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“significant weaknesses” in the standard of the guards although the Education Ministry spent RM2.052bil on security services from 2010 to 2012.
Ernst & Young had revealed that more than one in three company executives feel that corruption is not only rampant but on the rise in Malaysia, until Malaysia is perceived as the second most corrupt country in the region after Indonesia. The survey by global management consultancy Ernst & Young (EY) garnered the views of 681 executives, senior managers and working level employees from March to May 2013 in Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam.
39% of respondents say that bribery or corrupt practices happen widely in Malaysia, which is nearly double the Asia-Pacific average of 21 %. However Malaysia is world champion in private companies taking the “easy way out”(corruption) when economic times are tough. 54 % of the respondents said they would take “the easy way out” as compared to China’s 34% and Indonesia’s 29%.
For this reason Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Razali Ibrahim is lying for claiming only 5% of Malaysians have been involved directly or indirectly in corruption. Until the BN Federal government not only take serious action on the Auditor-General’s Report against the culprits and accept facts instead of relying on sentiments, Malaysians would continue to loses tens of billions of ringgit every year from wastage and financial wrongdoings.