It's beyond govt's control

-
MALAYSIA'S score on Transparency International's (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2010 is disappointing as the government has done "what is humanly possible" to fight graft, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said yesterday. He said there were certain high- profile cases which were "beyond" the government's control.

TI president Datuk Paul Low had said on Tuesday that Malaysia's corruption score had dropped from 4.5 per cent last year to 4.4 this year.

He added that the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) fiasco and the "Lingam tape" scandals had adversely affected public perception of corruption in the country, leading to the drop in the corruption score.
Nazri said there was nothing the government could do on some matters.

"Unless, of course, TI wants us to interfere with the judiciary and direct the judiciary to have a quick hearing and also to convict those charged. I don't think that's what TI wants," the minister in charge of law and parliament said yesterday.

"So, to be honest, as for PKFZ, there's nothing we can do."

He added that as long as the case was not resolved, the perception would remain that the country was not doing much to fight corruption.

On the case involving senior lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam, he said the matter was in the attorney-general's hands.

"In my opinion, there's nothing to charge Lingam with because there is no proof that he had influenced the appointment of judges and there was no element of corruption because he was not caught with money.

"We can't simply charge Lingam just to get an increase of 0.1 or 0.2 in our corruption perception score.

"You cannot charge somebody when no offence was committed."

He said that since Lingam had not been charged, the perception was that Malaysia had not done enough as far as corruption was concerned.

On the open tender system, the Padang Renggas member of parliament said he would push for it to be implemented to improve transparency.

"Direct negotiations should also be stopped. That, we can do."

Asked about Datuk Seri Najib Razak's statement on Monday that not all projects had to go through open tender system, Nazri added that the prime minister had his own reasons for saying so and this was probably because the government wanted to speed up certain projects.

"But I think we can make it transparent by revealing details to the public such as the value of contracts offered and to whom the projects were awarded to."


Read more: Nazri: It's beyond govt's control http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/22dwan/Article#ixzz13cM5SRSF

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Malaysia expects more than RM1.3 billion revenue from healthcare tourism in 2017

-
KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 20): Malaysia is expected to see a 16.07% growth in income from healthcare tourism to more than RM1.3 billion in 2017, from RM1.12 billion in 2016. In a Parliamentary written reply to Labuan’s lawmaker Datuk Rozman Isli, the Ministry of Tourism and Culture said in terms of tourist numbers, healthcare tourism is expected to bring in 996,000 travellers to Malaysia this year, an 8.08% growth from 921,500 in 2016. The Ministry noted that the overall economic impact from healthcare tourism last year including the hospitality industry was RM4 billion to RM5 billion. “Healthcare tourism [in Malaysia] showed a compounded annual growth rate of 16% from 2011 through 2016,” the Ministry said. Rozman requested the Ministry to reveal the tourist statistics for Malaysia's healthcare tourism from year 2013 to the second quarter of 2017.
Read more

Israel Dedah Rahsia Arab Saudi

-
Seorang menteri kabinet Israel mendedahkan bahawa Israel mempunyai hubungan rahsia dengan Arab Saudi, di tengah kebimbangan umum terhadap Iran, lapor Reuters. Pendedahan pertama kali itu dilakukan oleh seorang pegawai kanan daripada salah sebuah negara yang sudah lama bekerjasama dalam diam. Sementara itu, sehingga kini kerajaan Arab Saudi tidak memberi respons segera terhadap kenyataan Menteri Tenaga Israel, Yuval Steinitz berhubung pendedahan kontroversi berkenaan. "Kami mempunyai hubungan yang kebanyakannya dirahsiakan dari negara Islam dan Arab. Kebiasaannya kami berada di pihak yang tidak mahu berselindung," kata Steinitz. Manakala jurucakap Perdana Menteri Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu juga tidak memberi respons berhubung isu itu. Arab Saudi dan Israel dilaporkan melihat Iran sebagai ancaman utama kepada negara di rantau Asia Barat. Ketegangan yang kian memuncak antara Tehran dan Riyadh menyemarakkan lagi spekulasi Israel dan Arab Saudi berkongsi kepentingan ser
Read more

Trio assaulted for honking at cars

-
Three men were seriously injured after they were attacked for honking at two stalled cars in Jalan Genting Klang here. The incident occured at 5.30am yesterday when the victims, who were in a lorry, noticed a BMW and a Toyota Alphard moving haphazardly before stopping in the middle of the road. Sentul OCPD Asst Comm Zakaria Pagan said the lorry driver decided to honk at the two cars to the chagrin of the drivers who stormed out of their vehicles. The lorry driver sped off but the two cars caught up with the vehicle at a traffic light near Danau Kota. Ten suspects then alighted from the two cars and assaulted the three men with knives and wooden bats. ACP Zakaria said the victims, who sustained injuries to their head, hands and legs, were sent to a nearby clinic by some passers-by. The trio, aged between 25 and 48 years, were later transferred to Hospital Kuala Lumpur because of their serious condition. He urged those with information to contact the nearest police station.
Read more