PETALING JAYA: An anti-graft watchdog has suggested that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) directive requiring personnel to declare their assets be extended to their spouses and dependents to close any loopholes for concealing assets.
Malaysian Corruption Watch (MCW) president Jais Abdul Karim said asset declarations by MACC officers alone might not be enough to address the increasingly complex challenges of modern corruption.
“The experience in many countries has shown that assets acquired through illicit means are rarely registered under the individual’s own name. Instead, they are often placed under the names of spouses, children, close family members, business associates, or proxies.
“For this reason, MCW believes that the government and MACC should consider a more comprehensive declaration-of-interest mechanism involving spouses and dependants who have direct ties to the officer concerned,” he told FMT.
He said the approach was not intended to intrude on family privacy, but to ensure that the integrity of the system is preserved and opportunities to hide assets are minimised.
Jais said the more important aspect was not merely asset declaration, but the verification, audit, and periodic monitoring processes.
“Without cross-checking against property records, company ownership records, financial accounts, and lifestyle indicators, asset declarations risk becoming little more than administrative documents with no significant impact,” he said.
On June 8, MACC chief commissioner Abd Halim Aman said all personnel must submit or update their asset declarations within a month of receiving the official notification, which would be issued at a later date.
He said the directive was among the measures introduced under his leadership to strengthen the agency’s integrity and rebuild public confidence in MACC as an independent, professional, and impartial institution.
Rasuah Busters CEO Nurhayati Nordin said the move should be commended as it sends a message of integrity from within MACC itself.
However, she said the measure should not be implemented selectively, without monitoring, and the outcomes must be properly scrutinised and detailed.
“It should not stop at declaration alone. We certainly want action taken, especially when red flags are identified. This is because issues involving the ownership of assets, shares, and such previously created perceptions that affected MACC’s credibility and standing.
“We do not want to see this directive as merely a narrative or publicity exercise. It must be translated into genuine MACC reform,” she said.
