“That is my report of the progress of my job. I’m not sure whether you consider this adequate or not, but definitely I’m not sleeping,” he joked.
Low said this at the end of his keynote speech during the annual National Procurement and Integrity Forum for Public and Private Sectors at Istana Hotel here today.
However, he lamented that the biggest challenge was creating public awareness about his efforts.
“My problem is how do I communicate what I’m doing to the public?” Low asked, preferring instead to take a positive attitude and simply “believe” that his efforts would “eventually be felt by the public.”
On another matter, Low revealed that the corporate liability bill would soon be presented in the Dewan Rakyat, and that companies engaging in corrupt practices would soon face the music.
“The corporate liability act is in the final stage. I’m going to push it, preferably within this year.”
Low said the bill was proposed two years ago and had gone through various discussions and research.
“This is the third year now. Hopefully, this time I will be able to get it through.”
He explained he faced several challenges when drafting the bill since it was crucial to ensure that the proposals were able to adequately tackle issues faced by local companies.
“We have studied various cases in the US and UK, and it took us some time to find a suitable bill to address the corporate liability issues here,” he pointed out.
When asked for his comments about Malaysia’s current ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Low said he did not think it was an alarming issue.
“I don’t think it’s getting worse. 2015 was a special year, it was a blip,” he said.
Low, who is the transparency and accountability minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, aims to improve Malaysia’s CPI score to 55.
At present, the country has a score of 50 and was ranked 54 among the 168 countries evaluated.
“It is a long journey, but the war is not won by one battle. Some battles are won and some battles are lost.
“But the trend shows we are moving towards better governance,” he said, adding that public perception will eventually change when new laws come into place.