Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on March 28 - April 3, 2016.

 

The exposure earlier this month of a syndicate that has siphoned RM107 million from the Youth and Sports Ministry over six years puts the spotlight on government procurement yet again.

Obviously, an extensive scheme that involved the alleged use of divisional finance offices under the ministry to make payments to 14 companies for sports-related programmes could only succeed if the check-and-balance system of the institution was not working well.

This points to the ugly truth that the tolerance of corruption in the civil service needs to be addressed along with the tightening of procurement procedures that has been promised by Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

So, while the rectification of the ministry’s payment protocol is the immediate concern, little benefit will be gained from focusing on the proverbial tip of the iceberg, as the many cases of fiduciary lapse highlighted in the auditor-general’s annual report indicate.

In truth, the rules of procurement that are spelt out in the General Orders governing the civil service are sufficiently explicit to ensure that public funds are scrupulously utilised, if the instructions are diligently observed.

Therefore, an overhaul of procurement practices in itself would be unlikely to solve the problem because the roots of corruption extend deeply into personal motivations and the prevailing sociopolitical environment. So, for remedial action to have meaningful outcomes, it must encompass measures at the individual, institutional and public policy levels.

In terms of direct remedies, it is important to recognise that corruption cannot be overcome by focusing on the common solutions like increasing penalties or imposing stricter controls, although this may seem to be counter-intuitive.

By way of comparison, it is revealing that an extreme measure like the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking has not been effective in curbing the narcotics trade. Indeed, Parliament was told in 2012 that despite the imposition of capital punishment for the offence, there had been a steady increase in the number of traffickers arrested in the three preceding years.

Another common prescription is to emphasise the inculcation of moral values, often through religious education, as an internal check against corrupt behaviour. Despite its popularity, however, the efficacy of this approach is debatable. It is worth noting that countries that consistently come out tops in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index — Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand and the Netherlands to name a few — do not have overtly moralistic societies.

Among the complex mix of factors that contribute to the prevalence of corruption, unbridled materialism must have a prominent place. As a defining characteristic of the current times, its manifestation can be found in all levels of society and no aspect of our lives appears to be immune from its influence. This obsession for having more and more is a powerful fuel for corruption, and no abiding progress in the war against graft can be hoped for until the tide turns against this flow towards conspicuous consumption.

Taking a close look at the least corrupt countries, we note that the salient features of their social, economic and political systems include a strong welfare ethos, a culture of social responsibility and an emphasis on accountability. These characteristics must be married to the free market principle that drives much of the world today to bring balance back into our society.

The key to rediscovering integrity in our lives lies ultimately in a mental transformation that involves turning away from deifying material success towards a holistic view of the individual as a dynamic element in society and the larger world, drawing sustenance from the community and the environment and nurturing them in turn in a mutually supportive relationship.

Until this equilibrium is re-established, we will be unlikely to make much headway against the perennial problems affecting our society or the larger global family, whether it is corruption, a tottering economic system, the climate crisis or one geo-political flashpoint or another that is erupting as a manifestation of the all-consuming appetite of man.

It is not unusual that old arrangements rooted in vested interests will be incapable of detaching themselves from their corrupt foundations to reset the scales and start anew.

The impetus for a fresh start must, therefore, come from the harbingers of a new era. Catalysing local groups to organise themselves as torchbearers of integrity, they must sow new seeds of transparency and accountability in their midst so that these core principles of democratic governance become the lifeblood of the institutions they build for the future.

If the motivation to create an ethical society rises from the morass of the current integrity crisis, the procurement scandal that has blighted the Youth and Sports Ministry would at least have sparked a much needed mental revolution among the people.


R B Bhattacharjee is associate editor at The Edge Malaysia

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