KUALA LUMPUR: Government department or unit heads who fail to report cases of corruption in their departments will not be promoted, warned Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said he would make the suggestion to the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Zuki Mohd, in a meeting within the next few days, on the decision related to civil servant's salary adjustment.
"If there are clearly wrongdoings, why does the department head not report it? How can unit heads not know about it?
"I think these (corrupt) practices have been going on for years. It's impossible that you don't know about it.
"We establish a rule so that department or unit heads, who know that their system is corrupt and leave it unreported, will not get promoted. The responsibility is not on the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) alone."
Anwar said this at the Prime Minister's Department monthly gathering here this morning.
Present were Deputy Prime Ministers Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, Mohd Zuki, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister said, how the measure would be implemented would be decided by Mohd Zuki and the Public Services Department (PSD) director-general.
He added that he wanted the decision to be made next week, with all department and unit heads reporting any wrongdoings happening in their system.
He also said he did not mind repeating the same message on corruption over and over, as wrongdoings continued to happen.
"I am not tired to repeat this. There have been improvements, and I applaud the MACC, the Inland Revenue Board and other authorities, who do not compromise with corruption.
"We would get angry if our child or grandchild steals their friend's pencil, but we allow it if we steal millions and billlions.
"Why I (continue) to stress this because (corruption) is still happening on some levels."
Anwar reminded civil servants to play their part in combatting wrongdoings and corruption.
"I hope you all understand. Otherwise, you can choose not to be department heads because of this extra responsibility.
"Let the PSD director-general know that you only want to be an officer, not a head of a department or a unit.
"You can curse up a storm, (but) work must be done. I have given warnings for a long time, so the responsibility is on everyone from top to bottom," he said.