KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 – Umno Youth has demanded that the institutional reform agenda be expedited by placing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) under the supervision of Parliament.
Its chief Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said only by speeding up the institutional reform agenda and placing the MACC under Parliament would avoid any negative questions related to integrity and transparency, involving the most important body to tackle corruption, thus restoring public confidence and investors’ perception in the country.
Apparently, the statement from the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (LPPR) who was satisfied with the MACC Chief Commissioner Azan Baki’s explanation that his trading account was used by his brother to acquire millions of shares, did not ease the people’s negative perception of MACC’s integrity and transparency.
“The statement from the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) demanding further clarification based on the MACC DG’s statement highlighted the need for a more detailed independent investigation, as under Section 25 (4) of the Securities Industry (Central Depository) Act 1991 (SICDA), justifies only securities account holders are allowed to own shares,” he said in a statement via his Facebook page, today.
According to Asyraf, this reform, among others gives the power to appoint the Chief Commissioner as a prerogative of Parliament after a detailed screening process ‘due diligence’ is carried out and proposed by the Parliamentary Special Committee on qualified candidates.
“This is also to prevent the interference of the executive as is the practice today due to Section 5 of the MACC Act 2009, which states that the Chief Commissioner is appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister.
“With this update, it also means that the MACC DG’s service can never be influenced by political elements as happened in the previous PH government when former PKR top leader Latheefa Koya was also appointed MACC DG only after the 8th Prime Minister from PH took over the government,” he said. again.
Azam Baki was linked to the allegation that he had certain interests and was involved in a scandal regarding the ownership of shares.
