THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will no longer accept poison-pen letters on cases of corruption or abuse of power unless they are accompanied by complete and strong documents for investigation purposes.

MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki said the agency has a special committee which meets daily except weekends to evaluate information on cases.

He said the MACC does not want any individual or quarter to be victimised by poison-pen letters.

“As such, I wish to urge the public to furnish information on cases with the assurance that their identities are kept secret and protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act,” he told Bernama in conjunction with the 53rd annivarsary of MACC today.

He said even if a poison-pen letter was sent to the MACC, the graft-buster will first scrutinise the letter.

“For example, upon receiving a poison-pen letter containing complete documents, MACC will verify to determine the information can be trusted and utilised before conducting any investigation on a case.

“We will not entertain a poison-pen letter which only makes accusations. We will only respond if the letter contains a name or an e-mail,” he said.

Prior to this, Azam said MACC received many poison-pen letters but most of them did not contain strong grounds for investigation.

When asked if MACC could take action against members of Parliament or state assemblymen who jumped parties, he said, there are no legal provisions to bar politicians from doing so.

“It is outside the jurisdiction of MACC. It is up to the members of Parliament to draw up a law (on party-hopping) if there is a need to do so.

“The MACC will conduct investigations if there are elements of corruption (such politicians being bribed to defect),” he said.

To date, Azam said there is no evidence of such cases taking place but there were instances of certain parties who had furnished information (on such cases) but declined to give their cooperation

Meanwhile, on whether former MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya had drawn up any policies when she was holding the post, Azam said she had never formulated any policy for the agency.

“The policies of MACC were continued as normal except that the administrative style differed.

“For example, the implementation of the MACC Strategic Plan 2017-2020 is still continued. The mission and vision stipulated by MACC had been continued by Latheefa and, currently, myself,” he said.

On behalf of MACC, Azam expressed appreciation to Latheefa, who had contributed substantially towards eradicating corruption despite her short tenure. – Bernama, October 1, 2020.