PUTRAJAYA, July 17 (NNN-BERNAMA) – “The biggest challenge for us is to make the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) a corruption-free agency,” said MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya.
The first woman appointed to head the country’s enforcement agency in combating corruption said she was determined to ensure that MACC officers and members were free of any corrupt practices.
“That is the biggest challenge, to make the MACC a ‘whiter than white’ enforcement agency.
“It’s only been 40 days since I held this post (chief commissioner of the MACC), yet I am still in the mood to source for information and so on,” she said in an interview with Bernama at the MACC headquarters, here.
Appointed to the post on June 4, she said she would ensure officers and members of the MACC were not influenced by elements of corruption.
“If I receive reports or complaints (on MACC officers and staff being involved in corruption), I will not hesitate to take action against them,” she said.
Latheefa said the focus was also on making the MACC a pragmatic enforcement agency in terms of corruption prevention.
“Hence, prevention is not in conventional terms, which is not just by explaining that corruption is a bad thing and so on, but it needs MACC’s proactive approach.
“We have a unit that places an MACC personnel with integrity in every ministry, government agency and government-linked company (GLC) to ensure their procurement system adheres to the regulations set,” she added.
Latheefa said the MACC conducted monitoring and would ensure no loopholes in the procurement system of ministries, government agencies and GLCs so as to avoid corruption.
She said so far, the MACC had received the commitment and good feedback from the relevant parties.
“In addition, we have received requests from private companies for the MACC to conduct a course on managing the procurement system,” she said.
— NNN-BERNAMA