SHAH ALAM - What's the difference between a gift and corruption? Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association (PPIM) says the difference is "small" and due to that civil servants need to know the difference to avoid falling into the trap.
Datuk Nadzim Johan cited an example of how loan sharks had approached his volunteers.
"We were approached by a loan shark who wanted to offer us RM60,000 every month if we do not do anything (take action).
"If we take the money, we can no longer do anything. To avoid such traps, we created SOPs, one of them to pay for our own drinks if we go out with them," he told Sinar Harian.
By doing this, the volunteers are not obliged to them even though the drinks do not cost much.
Commenting further, Nadzim said, the community, especially those in government agencies need to be made aware of the matter.
In November 2020, Transparency International Malaysia had said that some 71% of Malaysians think that government corruption is a big problem, with Parliament, the police and Government officials ranked the highest for the perception of corruption among public institutions.
TI-M said 7% of surveyed Malaysians had been bribed for their votes in an election, which is lower than the average in Asia of 14%. Meanwhile, 15% of Malaysians had utilised personal connections when accessing public services, lower than the Asian average of 22%.