Wong Chen clears air over call to mandate asset declaration for civil service

PETALING JAYA: Subang MP Wong Chen has clarified his call for mandatory asset declarations for civil servants, following Cuepacs’s remarks that members of the public service are already required to declare their assets.

Wong said his proposal for senior civil servants to declare their assets referred to a “public declaration” rather than one solely made to the government.

“In addition, these declarations need to be audited by an independent body, such as the auditor-general (national audit department) or equivalent,” he said in an Instagram post.

Wong also said the Madani government had been speaking of finalising a new and better asset declaration system.

“I am just reminding my own government to finalise and implement it.

“If implementing public declarations (of assets) for politicians has insufficient political traction now, then at the very least, impose this on senior civil servants.

“A reminder to my fellow Malaysians who have extremely short-term memories — the 1MDB scandal happened because of a systemic failure involving politicians and senior civil servants.”

Yesterday, Wong called on Putrajaya to make asset declarations mandatory for elected representatives but admitted that component parties in the unity government may lack the appetite for it.

Wong also said judges and members of the civil service, including ministry secretaries-general and their deputies, should be required to declare their assets to enhance transparency and inspire confidence in the administration.

However, Cuepacs said today civil servants are required to declare their assets every five years, a practice that will continue under the new Public Service Remuneration System.

Its secretary-general, Abdul Rahman Nordin, said the legal department of each agency is tasked with monitoring the declaration process.

In March, deputy law and institutional reform minister M Kula Segaran had said a revised format of the declaration had been finalised and was ready to be presented to the Cabinet for approval.

In June, law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said said the new format had not yet been finalised, but she expected the updated version to be presented to the Cabinet “soon”.

However, there have been no updates on the matter since.