CHAPTER SEVEN

PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY, INTEGRITY AND ETHICS

OF PUBLIC SECTOR IN MALAYSIA

1
 INTRODUCTION
• Public accountability is essential and could be ensured only
internally through professionalism i.e. public officials sense of
duty to the public and commitment to their professional values
and norms (Friedrich, 1940)

• Public ethics: refers to principles by which to evaluate

behavior as right or wrong, good or bad. It too refers to well
based standards of right & wrong, and prescribe what humans
to do.(Amundsen & Andrade, 2009)
2
CASES OF INTEGRITY BREACHES
IN MSIA
• 29/9/21: Forged security stickers from Immigration Dept
in Sabah (37 cases) & Sarawak (1,137 cases) back in
2019 & 2017.

• Knowledge & academic integrity breach among Msian

Unis

• Certificate conferment in Unis

• Leak of National exam papers
• False claims etc
3
 APPROACHES TO PA

2 major approaches of PA:

i. Internal: based on one’s professionalism values and norms. It
emphasizes on devoting greater attention to ethics (making the
public servants to be responsible in serving the publics)
ii. External: designed to enable institutions outside bureaucracy
to oversee its activities and compel it to act responsibly and
efficiently. It is whereby public servants remain answerable
for their actions and performance.

4
 TYPES OF PA

4 types according to Romzek & Dubnick (2001):

i. Hierarchical / bureaucratic: stresses on superior/subordinate
relations.
ii. Legal: advocates fiduciary/principle-agent relations, auditing and
other oversights.
iii. Professional: relies exclusively on integrity and trustworthiness of
experts who have the skills to get the job done.
iv. Political: government’s responsiveness to its constituents.
5
INTEGRITY PRACTICES AMONG
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
• According to the bilingual dictionary of Dewan Bahasa
dan Pustaka (DBP) 1985 [1] is "honesty and sincerity",
perfection, 'wholeness'. This means integrity is the
"identity" nature that also includes sincerity, openness,
transparency, trustworthiness, truth, adherence to
principles, not easy to influence, trustworthy, capable of
speaking and others.

6
• Integrity among civil servants

• The integrity of civil servants is to implement the trust and power given to the public
interest and not to abuse such power for the benefit of themselves, their families,
relatives or relatives. In the event of a conflict of interest, priority should be given to
the public interest.

• Peraturan-Peraturan Pegawai Awam (Kelakuan dan Tatatertib) 1993.

• 1. Come early to the office or on time.

• 2. Fulfill customer needs with friendly and prudent

• 3. Not misuse of office equipment and facilities.

• 4. Eat and drink only at lunch break.

• 5. Do not go out of office without permission.

• 6. Conduct the task in earnest and diligent.

• 7. Do not accept / request bribe from customers.

• 8. Submit the claim honestly. 7

• 9. Perform work quickly, accurately and with integrity.

WHAT CONTRIBUTES TO LACK
OF INTEGRITY? (YUSOF ET. AL,
2019)
1. People can lose integrity anytime they are asked a difficult question or are
presented with a situation requiring moral action. Most people will shy away
from confrontation, and choose denial or willing blindness, rather than admit
they are wrong, or things may not be what they believed them to be.

2. When confronted with making a moral choice, most act out of self-interest
even though rules and values that they profess to live by would suggest that
they would want to be supportive of others and live by a higher moral code.

3. People can lose their integrity when they refuse to admit they are wrong, or
when they lie or fail to tell the truth when they discover what the truth is.

8
EFFORTS TOWARDS BETTER
INTEGRITY PRACTICES (NOTE.
ADAPTED AND REVISED FROM
CORPORATE INTEGRITY SYSTEM
MALAYSIA (CISM) OFFICIAL
• 2004 : Launching of the National Integrity Plan (NIP) and Establishment of Institute of Integrity
WEBSITE.)
Malaysia (IIM)

• 2008 : Setting up of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)

• 2009 : Prime Minister Directive No. 1 2009 – Implementation of Certified Integrity Unit (CeIO) in
ministries, departments and public agencies.

• 2010 :Launching of the Government Transformation Programme (National Key Results Areas –
Fighting Corruption) and Economic Transformation Programme. Signing of Integrity Pledge by
Chamber of Commerce with Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), Formulation of
Corporate Integrity System Malaysia (CISM) Roundtable

• 2011 : Creation of Corporate Integrity Pledge (CIP)

• 2012 : Publication of Best Business Practice Circular (3/2012)

• 2013 : Appointment of Minister of Governance and Integrity 9

• 2014 : Prime Minister Directive No. 1 2014 - Establishment of Integrity and Governance
PUB. ETHICS AMONG PUB.
SERVANTS
According to Surat Pekeliling Perkhidmatan (2009), there are 4 criteria
that contribute to ethical behavior of government servant:
i. Personnel assessment
Ii. Personnel development
Iii. Research
Iv. Innovation

* The objective of this circulation is to optimize the human resource skills

and knowledge to provide better quality of government service delivery.
It also could develop positive value and good work ethics among
government servant through consultation, motivation and work
satisfaction. 10
ETHICS?

• Ethics is defined as ‘the collection of values and norms, and of

moral standards or principles that forms the foundation of integrity’
(Kolthoff 2016).
• In a broad context, ethics can be defined as a set of principles or
code of conduct, which is practiced as a framework for actions
(Lawton 1998).
• While the moral nature of these principles or code of conduct
denotes what is considered right or wrong, integrity or ethical
behavior signifies more than simply not being corrupt or fraudulent
(Yukl 2012; Kolthoff 2016).
11
APPROACHES TO ETHICAL
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS
• 1. Stewardship
• The stewardship theory requires the public administrators to perform their duty
ethically based on the premise of being a ‘steward’. It is based on the image of a
medieval steward of the lord where serving the interest of their principals is more
pleasurable than serving their own (Schillemans, 2012). The contemporary
steward would likely serve the collective goals of the administration.

• A steward’s motivation to serve is aligned to the goals and objectives of the

organization (Armstrong, 1997). Hence, a public administrator is ethical when he
works according to the goals of the collective rather than personal goals where
the willingness to serve is intrinsically motivated (Puyvelde, Caers, Bois, &
Jegers, 2012). However, the success of adopting the stewardship theory depends
on the commitment of the principals to award the ethical actions of the stewards.
12
CONT…

• 2. Responsible administrator
• An administrator must be able to explain and justify the
actions taken which resulted into particular
consequences. Cooper (2012) also pointed out that being
responsible means that the administrator must act
consistently with their inner convictions and have
sufficient clarity in their ethical stand to maintain their
integrity and self- esteem. 13
CONT…

• 3. Conservatorship

• The conservator concept address the effects of New Public

Management (NPM) that isolate politics from administrative
reforms and promote management as one that fits all solutions.

• As a conservator, one seeks to reserve the capacity of

bureaucracy to respond to public problems by emphasizing the
importance of institutional functions.

14
CONT…
• 4. Islamic ethics
* As a Muslim majority country and a public service dominated by the Muslims,
Malaysia has adopted Islamic values as one of its ethics approach. The
administration had officially propagated the inculcation of Islamic values in
administration in 1985 and introduced the Islamic Work Ethics in 1987.

• Islamic ethics is the relationship between the Khaliq (Creator) and the Makhluq
(creature) therefore to be ethical is to obey what has been commanded by the
Creator (Rahim, 2013).

• How one conducts oneself, what is being practiced, what does one beliefs in and
think of and what do one hold onto as a foundation of life must come from the
religious point of view. The ultimate aim in everything done is to gain the
pleasure of the Creator. There is no conduct, work or service that is worthy
unless it is done in the values that pleases God All- Mighty.

15
SOME EXAMPLE OF ISSUES
RELATED TO ETHICS IN
MALAYSIA
• 1. Scandals in decision making
Malaysian community namely the Port Klang Free Trade Zone (PKFZ), the Malaysian
Airlines System (MAS) and Transmile Group Bhd. The scandal occurred due to the failure
of ethical decision making due to personal interest and abuse of power (Boon et al., 2017).

2. Corruptions
In 2017, according to a research on Major Public Sector Institutions which have conducted a
survey on the people and their views on the issues of corruption from various influential
groups and key institutions in their country. Globally, police and elected representatives
(such as MPs, congresses, senators, etc.) are seen to be the most corrupt of 36%, followed
closely by government officials, businessmen and local government officials (Pring, 2017).

16
CONT…

• 3.High-profile cases were struck like the 1MDB scandal, the case of
SRC International Sdn. Bhd, a RM2.6 billion donation, Felda scandal
and Sabah water.
4. The reports of Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) in 2018
shows that Malaysia's position at 61 out of 180 countries. Although
Malaysia has made significant progress since the election in 2017,
including the major arrest of corrupt officials, the country has conducted
a continuous investigation into the 1Malaysia Development Berhad
(1MDB) scandal estimated at over US $ 4.5 billion and involving
political leaders at the highest level of government
(www.trasparency.org.my, 2019).

17
OTHER MSIAN ETHICS
INITIATIVES
i. Integrity of Public Service focusing on corruption offenders following
the enactment of the Corruption Prevention Ordinance 1950 (UKM,
2007). ACA was established in 1967 and later named as National
Investigation Bureau in 1973. The ACA was elevated into the MACC
in 2009 as an independent and transparent body in supporting the
nation’s anti-corruption efforts. (MACC, 2017)
Ii. Development of Islamic Work Ethics (Surat Pekeliling
Perkhidmatan, 2009)
Iii. PERDANA principles (2009): Pantas & Positif, empati, relevan,
daya saing, amanah, adil dan integriti, nilai tambah dan kelainan & arif
dan berilmu

18
 Iv.. Interconnected campaigns such as Clean, Efficient & Trustworthy,
Leadership by Example, Integration of Islamic Values, Values and Ethics of
Public Service and Excellent Work Culture were created to support the
aspiration off excellent work ethics in public sector.
V. Other examples of Malaysian ethics initiatives are as follows:
** Work Ethics (1981)
**Look East Policy (1982)
** Instilling the Islamic Values in service (1985)
** Excellent Work Culture (1989)
** 12 Pillars (1992)
** The Values Program (2000)
** National Integrity Plan (2004)
** Government Transformation Program (2010)
** Public Service Ethos (2012)

19
 • Done with the syllabus
• We are to focus on tutorials starting from Week 9
onwards.
• Tutorials will be given in CLASS in GROUPS…..Time
is given to finish it off…You are to present the answers.
• Random students will be selected for every tutorial
sessions. (the same students will be omitted of
answering)
• Marks are given INDIVIDUALLY for the semester’s
20
assessment (refer to your SOW on Tutorial assessment)