Sarawak aims to produce more certified integrity officers (CeIOs) to maintain the standing of government departments and agencies as the frontliners towards reaching the advanced status for the state.

Deputy Minister in Sarawak Premier’s Department (Integrity and Ombudsman) Datuk Dr Juanda Jaya made this remark in performing the closing ceremony for the CeIO Series 22 and 23 programme at a hotel here yesterday.

Adding on, he stressed that all members of every government department and agency must remain steadfast in upholding integrity and must be free from corruption; otherwise, the whole Sarawak administration would crumble.

“Sarawak government is committed to producing more CeIOs; hence the continuation of the current programme, which kicked off on July 19, 2022.

“It’s also run in response to the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) and in this regard, the state government has issued a circular calling for all departments and agencies to come up with their respective Organisational Anti-Corruption Plan (OACP),” he pointed out.

It is informed that as at December last year, 70 state government agencies had set up their respective OACPs, while 16 were still at the final stage of implementation.

Moreover, from the 70 agencies, a total of 4,275 initiatives had been identified.

Juanda said following the formation of the new Sarawak Cabinet, an integrity oath pledge was conducted on Jan 27 this year to signify the importance for the state administration to be more transparent and accountable, as well as to be free from any element of corruption.

“On Sarawak Civil Service Day 2022, the Premier of Sarawak (Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg) had called upon all civil servants to be committed in ensuring that all public services related to infrastructure and socio-economic projects would be delivered efficiently with integrity, any overspending would be avoided, and every project would be free from any element of crime, corruption, embezzlement, abuse of power and fraud.

“The state government agencies involved must always provide excellent service to both the people and the stakeholders.

“It is my hope that the CeIOs could contribute effectively towards enhancing the integrity culture to ensure that not only that Sarawak would become an advanced state by 2030, but the citizens would also adopt the principle of high integrity,” he added.

Juanda also highlighted the creation of the Integrity and Ombudsman portfolio on May 7, 2017 under the then-Chief Minister’s Department, before the Unit of Integrity and Ombudsman was set up in 2018.

He said at the time, Sarawak was the first state in Malaysia to create such a unit and subsequently, several other states began to ‘emulate the Sarawak model’.

On the CeIO programme, he said it was a collaboration between the Integrity and Ombudsman Unit and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Academy (Maca).

This time, the programme involved 80 participants. When it was launched in 2019, it registered 90 civil servants.

Sarawak Integrity and Ombudsman Unit director Adana Jed and Maca senior commissioner Zulhairi Abu Bakar were also present at the event.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by CHURCHILL EDWARD

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