MACC chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad said the paperwork on the proposal would be presented in the next Anti-Corruption Advisory Board meeting before submitting it to the cabinet.
He said if the proposal was approved, a study would be carried out by an independent body as well as academicians to ensure the transparency of the index.
“It is time for us to have our own and more effective index.
“We do not want to look solely from the angle of perceptions but also the reality.
“Give the MACC some time. In the next two to three months, we will bring the proposal to the higher level,” he told a press conference after attending the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board meeting here today.
Dzulkifli said the special index would be an important tool to study the reality of corruption and abuse of power in the country through a local point of view.
Meanwhile, the MACC has set up a special committee to look into the country’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017, issued by Transparency International today.
This saw Malaysia drop two points from 49 (out of 100 points) in the previous year to 47.
This placed it third among 10 Asean countries and 62 among 180 countries (dropping seven spots from the previous year).
“Since the existing CPI is a perception, or a study about the position of corruption in Malaysia and it is carried out by foreign expatriates, it does not reflect the reality of the situation.
“However, we do not reject the index and we will also look into the findings,” Dzulkifli said.
He said the country’s latest position in the CPI is shocking and did not at all reflect the aggressive efforts carried out by MACC in combating corruption last year.
“It is not in line with the reality of the action, enforcement, prevention and education implemented in 2017,” he said.
Malaysia drops further in global graft index, worst in 5 years