KOTA KINABALU, Oct 16 — The Sabah government is implementing five strategies for cultivating and strengthening integrity in the state’s public service towards achieving an outstanding and efficient state administration system, says Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

He said the first strategy was through the commitment of top management that emphasised the principles of integrity, accountability and transparency to ensure that Sabah becomes a pioneer, leader and benchmark in Governance, Integrity and Anti-corruption (GIA) management.

He said the second strategy was to strengthen awareness of the importance of risk assessment in the organisation; third, to strengthen control measures to curb the risk and threat of integrity issues, corruption, misappropriation and abuse of power.

"The fourth is the effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement to ensure the compliance of stakeholders in state government agencies, and the fifth is the empowerment of training and communication of virtues in improving the understanding and skills of civil servants to combat issues of integrity and corruption,” he said.

Hajiji said this in his speech when inaugurating the Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption Convention (KITA) 2023 and the handing over of certificates of completion for the Sabah Government Certified Integrity Officer Programme here today.

Commenting on KITA 2023, Hajiji said the two-day convention which ends tomorrow was a flagship initiative that supported the goal of achieving an outstanding and efficient state administration system.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) director-general Tan Sri Azam Baki in his speech at the ceremony said Sabah was the only state to issue directives on GIA as recommended by the commission.

"This shows the commitment and seriousness of the Sabah Government in its efforts to combat corruption, strengthen governance and cultivate integrity in the state of Sabah more efficiently and effectively,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said KITA 2023, with the theme ‘Integriti Teras Perkhidmatan Awam’ (Integrity is the Core of Public Service), would be a platform for the proliferation of ideas, knowledge sharing, experience and success among public agencies across the country. — Bernama