PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigative and intelligence approach needs to be enhanced to track down assets stolen by corrupt criminals, says its chief commissioner.
Tan Sri Azam Baki said MACC operations are now more focused on not only arresting corrupt offenders and prosecuting them in court, but also bankrupting them.
“For this year alone, we repatriated RM1.3bil in criminal assets and that money was handed back to the government. If all law enforcement agencies mobilise their energy, in addition to arresting criminals and accusing them in court, we can also confiscate the stolen property of such criminals.
“I want to make them (corrupt criminals) bankrupt and this can bring a ‘scare factor’ to them so that they think many times before committing crimes related to corruption,” he told Bernama.
Azam said the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act allows the MACC to confiscate assets from criminals and return the stolen proceeds to the government.
He said such efforts require a high level of knowledge and expertise from investigative and forensic officers.
“Imagine corrupt criminals parking their property with a ‘proxy’, who knows. Therefore, our investigation and intelligence approach must be robust and empowered.
“Before investigating that person, we need to identify assets that have been disposed of or channelled to any party so that we can ensure these assets are (returned),” he said.
Drawing the example of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) case, Azam said MACC’s hard work, together with other agencies, bore fruit when RM29bil was returned to the government from the principal cost of RM42bil.
The MACC has also set up task forces in other agencies like Bank Negara, the Customs Department, and the police force to share expertise in syndicate cases.
In addition to enforcement, MACC also plays a role in prevention and community education through the mainstream media and campaigns on social media.
“The use of social media is optimised in line with the needs of the community – for example live -streaming debate programmes that allow the community to watch and understand,” Azam said.
He also said that community education is delivered from the primary school to the university level, for example through the Anti-Corruption Student Group that was started at Sultan Zainal Abidin University.
A more focused approach on curbing the giving and receiving of bribes, corruption in procurement that causes large leakages, and large-scale corruption or “grand corruption” is needed, he said.
Asked about foreign countries that can be used as an example, Azam said apart from Hong Kong, the MACC also learned from other countries, including Qatar, which uses a fully digital system for traffic compound payments, reducing the opportunity for bribery.
