Stop letting private firms hold public funds, say anti-graft groups

Anti-graft groups are urging Malaysian authorities to prevent private firms from holding public funds when facilitating government collections. The JPJ has suspended MYEG subsidiary Zetrix AI Bhd's ability to collect road tax fees and traffic summonses due to a RM314 million arrears bill. Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) has called for strict contractual safeguards in future concession agreements to prevent major revenue defaults and suggested that revenue collections should be paid directly into government accounts, with vendors paid separately.

TI-M president Raymon Ram emphasized that a private service provider may facilitate revenue collection, but should never accumulate or control large amounts of public money. Contracts should include predetermined suspension triggers and strict enforcement mechanisms to prevent accumulation of public revenue. Raymon criticized the five-month delay in taking action against Zetrix, arguing that mere reminders were an ineffective control mechanism for such large sums.

Bryan Cheah from the C4 Center cautioned against blaming ministry personnel and urged the government to investigate possible corruption. He proposed reassessing procurement policies to ensure contracts and concessions given to private sector players adhere to a strict code of conduct that includes a set protocol for actions to be taken in case of non-compliance.

The goal of sound public administration, Cheah argued, is preventive oversight to avoid such occurrences in the first place.