Malaysia scored 45% and received a D rating in the Government Defence Integrity Index (GDI) for 2020, released by Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M).

The D rating indicates weak institutional resilience to graft.

The GDI assesses a country’s defence sector and how well those responsible are able to manage the risk of corruption across multiple areas of defence, TI-M said in a statement.

The areas of defence include policymaking and political affairs, finances, personnel management, military operations and procurement.

New Zealand scored the highest at 85% and Sudan scored the lowest at 5% in the GDI.

TI-M said the defence sector had long been held as the “opaquest” area of government activity, with its budget transparency being restricted. The sector only provides a general outline of how it manages public money.

It said there was poor legislative oversight of the defence sector’s budget, low competitive bidding for procurements, a lack of data transparency and no independent ombudsman to address complaints.

“We urge the government to seriously look at the high risk of corruption in the defence sector and take measures to mitigate the situation”, TI-M president Muhammad Mohan said.

He urged the government to fully disclose to the public what was happening to the delivery of littoral combat ships and McDonnell MD503G helicopters, which had been long delayed and involved taxpayers’ money.

“Demonstrating transparency and having accountability in these two cases would show that the government is serious about good governance in the defence sector,” he added.