<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, member of the Malaysian Integrity Institute<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KOTA KINABALU: While most civil servants deserve the impending increase in salaries, it is unlikely that corrupt practices in government institutions will disappear completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the question is: Will it at least reduce the level of corruption?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will the outstretched hand asking for bribes be replaced by a friendly and sincere handshake?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people believe that simply raising salaries may not change the entrenched norms that facilitate corrupt behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without a shift in mindset and culture surrounding public service, higher pay might not deter corrupt practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the systems of accountability, transparency, ethics, and integrity are weak, even higher salaries will not have the desired impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without robust checks and balances, some civil servants may still exploit their positions regardless of their financial incentives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without structural reforms, such as changes to recruitment processes and career development opportunities, the effect of increased pay may not help over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just increasing pay without accompanying reforms in governance, ethics training, transparency, integrity, and whistleblower protections is unlikely to yield significant change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A multi-faceted approach is necessary to effectively combat corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the corrupt civil servants see the taking of bribes as an easy way to increase their illegitimate income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there is the matter of public perception. If the public continues to view some civil servants as inherently corrupt, pay increases may not change perceptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Effective public relations, education on ethics, and community engagement are necessary to foster trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government should institute new and innovative ways to buttress its efforts to stamp out or at least reduce corruption among civil servants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It could utilise artificial intelligence and data analytics to monitor civil servants\u2019 behaviours and track patterns that may indicate corrupt practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, it could devise a system that brings together civil servants, technologists, academicians, and NGOs to brainstorm anti-corruption solutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye, member of the Malaysian Integrity Institute KOTA KINABALU: While most civil servants deserve the impending increase in salaries, it is unlikely that corrupt practices in government institutions will disappear completely. But the question is: Will it at least reduce the level of corruption? Will the outstretched hand asking for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":30396,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-local-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30397,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30395\/revisions\/30397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jesseltontimes.com\/wpmarch2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}