KUALA LUMPUR: Permission to disregard “support letters” is prominent among new guidelines designed to keep civil servants on the straight-and-narrow.
The New Straits Times has learnt that these guidelines, ready and waiting for the nod from the chief secretary to the government, cover the do’s and don’ts of handling support letters issued by politicians for the attention of civil servants, as well as the disbursement of “pocket money” or tokens.
The guidelines address those in high positions in the civil service, ministers, deputy ministers, chief ministers, menteris besar and political secretaries.
“The government feels that a clearer definition of what constitutes corruption is needed, in view of reports of abuse of power among those in high-profile offices,” said a government source.
The source said there had been much confusion among civil servants on how to treat “support letters”.
“Under the new guidelines, civil servants will no longer need to heed support letters.” A code of ethics for politicians will also be spelt out.
“(Barisan Nasional) parliamentarians will also be required to declare their assets to the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission, aside from submitting their asset lists to the prime minister every time there are new transactions,” he said.
Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, contacted yesterday, acknowledged that he had seen the guidelines but had yet to sign them into force. He declined to comment further.
Political corruption is listed under “grand corruption”, one of three categories identified in the Government Transformation Programme’s (GTP) National Key Result Areas (NKRA) on reducing corruption.
The other two are law-enforcement corruption and procurement corruption.
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