‘Critical’ for Malaysia to maintain momentum of anti-corruption, governance reforms — World Bank

The Malaysian experience in combating corruption has yielded results, but the key is to maintain the momentum and continuity of the reforms around anti-corruption and governance, the World Bank said. This is as many institutions set up to detect and sanction corruption “became gradually compromised with increasing concentration of political power” in the past despite the nation adopting international best practices. The country, which has experienced two changes in federal government since 2018, needs to work towards institutionalising its reforms, and to have a broader coalition of reformers that is not limited to public institutions and other formal institutions of government, it said in its report "Enhancing Government Effectiveness and Transparency: The Fight Against Corruption”. In the report, the World Bank highlighted how the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) has singled out political interference as “one of the major impediments” of past reform efforts. The interference affected prudence in administrative and financial management in areas such as public procurement and resulted in half-hearted implementation of reforms, it said, adding that “strong support and a clear mandate from the top leadership is a pre-requisite to pursue difficult reforms”.

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