KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Set up in 2020 to improve integrity among 21 law enforcement agencies to boost public confidence in their staff, the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) has received 6,683 complaints.
Of these, it investigated 1,113 cases and resolved them, EAIC CEO Norhayati Ahmad told Sinar Harian in a report published today.
However, she said that 1,371 complaints that the EAIC received since its establishment involved enforcement agencies' inaction during investigations, failure to provide investigation updates and failure to inform an investigation outcome.
“The highest number of reports we received were of complaints made regarding these government agencies for not doing their work or not taking the appropriate action.
“Apart from that we also received complaints of officers being rude, harsh, abusing their powers, involved in drug cases where evidence went missing, corruption, disobeying the law as well as offences surrounding the movement control order (MCO).
“There also have been complaints regarding displeasure at receiving a summons, offences regarding public servants and the methods used to arrest and confiscate items,” she was quoted as saying.
According to Norhayati, the EAIC has 23 officers to deploy to the location of an incident to interview the individuals involved in the investigation.
She said all offences are punishable under Sections 16, 23 and 26 of the EAIC Act 2009.
She said that if there are incidents of corruption, the person would be referred to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission which would need to inform the EAIC within 14 days of the action it would take since her commission does not have the authority to take action in that area.
She said that enforcement agents under investigation who refuse to cooperate with the EAIC would be reported to their superiors.
“We’d inform their superiors and urge them to cooperate. If they still do not come to us, we will go to them. They would avoid us and chide us and be hard to reach. Not to mention our officers have been threatened and hurled with abuses during their investigations as well,” Norhayati was quoted as saying.
She said such incidents were what prolonged the EAIC’s investigations.
But she also said the EAIC is working to improve its SOP and visiting the 21 agencies under its purview to recommend areas of improvement to the government.
The 21 agencies under the EAIC are the: National Anti-Drugs Agency; Maritime Enforcement Agency; Department of Environment, Immigration Department; Customs Department; Department of Occupational Safety and Health; National Registration Department; Road Transport Department; Department of Industrial Relations; Fisheries Department; Department of Wildlife and National Parks; Volunteers Department, better known by its Malay abbreviation Rela; Department of Labour; Ministry of Health (Enforcement Division); Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Tourism Licencing Division); Ministry of Domestic Trades and Consumer Affairs (Enforcement Division); Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Enforcement Division); Commercial Vehicles Licensing Board (Sabah); Commercial Vehicles Licencing Board (Sarawak); Registrar of Business; Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia; and the police.
*Editor's note: An earlier version contained an inaccuracy that has since been corrected.
