KUCHING: The Sarawak civil service is vigorously undergoing digital transformation to achieve world-class status and capability while placing high importance on integrity and accountability.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said having a world-class delivery system cannot go without the element of transparency and good governance.
“The government sector is often perceived by the public as easily corrupt. Corruption is a disease that destroys the economy of a country if not checked. Hence, the fight against corruption should not be taken lightly,” he said.
The text of his speech was read out in his stead by Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment, Datuk Len Talif Salleh, who launched the Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) Integrity Day 2021 at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) on Monday (Nov 1).
Cognizant of the impact of corruption on the economy and government delivery system, he said several measures have been introduced to ensure efficient, clean and transparent civil administration.
“This includes the training of officers under Certified Integrity Officers (CeIO) programme. Their placement in the relevant departments and agencies is a way of ensuring a clean administration.
“There are other measures currently being implemented by the State Integrity and Ombudsman Unit (Union) to enhance the check and balance mechanisms at all levels of government, law enforcement and policy implementation to establish a healthy and thriving environment,” he said.
He added that in April 2019, the state government adopted the directive of the former prime minister to ensure the integrity initiative is implemented as a pillar of the state’s administration aimed at enhancing good governance and comprehensively fighting against corruption.
“In line with this, we formed the Anti-Corruption Committee at the ministry, division, and department levels in Sarawak to provide a platform to enable specific issues related to integrity and prevention of corruption in a ministry to be addressed immediately.
“All these are enormous and essential reforms to ensure that Sarawak is a developed state with the highest standard of good governance and integrity by 2030,” he pointed out.
He then applauded what SFC is committing itself now in the journey towards a world-class corruption free organisation.
“I sincerely hope that the SFC will continue to take this responsibility to carry out all the initiatives in your Organisational Anti-Corruption Plan (OACP) 2021-2025 and ensure that the organisation conforms to the integrity procedures and framework,” he said.
Meanwhile, SFC chief executive officer and controller of wildlife Zolkipli Mohamad Aton, said that the OACP consists of five strategies in the fight against corruption and to strengthen corporate governance.
The strategies are, namely, strengthening accountability and integrity in human capital management; strengthening processes in project management planning and implementation; improving procurement effectiveness and transparency; enhancing effectiveness and transparency in financial management and revenue collection; and strengthening the enforcement, licensing, and management of totally protected areas.
“Our OACP is a guide to keep us on track to ensure high standards of integrity while doing our day-to-day operations. We will implement all initiatives under the OACP framework within five years and this will be monitored closely by the CeIO,” he said.
Later, Zolkipli also led his officers present at the event to recite the anti-corruption pledge.
One of the highlights of the event was also the presentation of certificates to two SFC enforcement officers as a recognition for declining the bribes offer amounting to RM45,000.
