THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has arrested 59 employees of public and private universities, with 49 of them charged in court between 2017 and August this year with corruption. 

Deputy chief commissioner (prevention) Norazlan Mohd Razali said these cases involved a total of RM1.32 million in ill-gotten money, constituting RM1.31 million from public universities and RM11,800 from private universities.

He said one of the cases involved a director of a public university recently, who allegedly received a car as an inducement to help a company obtained a tender worth about RM1.6 million, while a university professor was also arrested over alleged false claims involving a research fund amounting to RM66,000.

“Incidents of corruption such as bribery, abuse of power, false claims and other financial offences do happen in our public and private universities,” he said in his keynote address at the launching of the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) Anti-Bribery and Corruption Framework at IIUM Gombak today.

“All kinds of corrupt practices such as abuse of power and fraudulent accreditation in higher education have grave implications on the reputation of the institutions and diminish the very core value they try to teach to the students, which is honesty,” he added.

On IIUM, he said it was rated as a medium-risk agency in 2020 but it did not mean that the public university was free from any corrupt practices.

“Since 2017 until August 2022, we have had only two cases against IIUM’s employees. Based on this record, I believe IIUM has been run with a fairly tight governance regime and it should be a no surprise if it aims to have a zero corruption with the introduction of the Anti-Bribery and Corruption Framework for the next five years,” he said.

The framework outlines the university’s principles and adequate procedures against bribery and corrupt practices in the conduct of its business to ensure the board members, university authorities and all workers uphold good values and integrity towards the attainment of its vision and mission. – Bernama, September 21, 2022.