Its president Akhbar Satar said in a statement today that the passing of the bill was a great start towards preventing corruption and mismanagement in the private sector.

The bill includes a corporate liability provision that makes companies liable for the corrupt acts of their employees, unless they prove all efforts have been made to prevent such corrupt acts from happening.

The amendment, however, will only be enforced in two years’ time to give sufficient time to all stakeholders to fully understand the provisions.

He called on all companies, from public listed companies to small and medium enterprises, to establish strong and effective measures to secure themselves from corruption, mismanagement and penalties, which could be imposed upon them with the new amendment.

“The decision to pass this bill would see changes being made to the Malaysian business landscape, where adequate anti-corruption standards, policies and procedures would no longer just be a ‘nice to have’ but become a ‘must have’, for otherwise the company may find itself being penalised by the MACC.”

Akhbar said he was pleased that the “notion to expedite” the incorporation of the corporate liability provision was presented last month at the launch of TI-M’s Business Integrity Country Agenda (BICA) report.

He hoped more BICA recommendations, such as an amendment to laws pertaining to political funding and strengthening of the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010, would be given consideration “in the near future”.