KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is looking into amending the MACC Act 2009 to include several improvements, including a provision on deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs).
Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said the reform to the act would allow a "settlement" for corporate liability cases, allowing the government to recover as much embezzled funds as possible.
"We don't want a longer trial. There is an example in the United Kingdom involving a large organisation, where a big chunk of money was involved.
"After the organisation was investigated, the prosecution was deferred and there was a monitoring system established for them to follow all kinds of procedures that were placed upon them them (to recover funds)," he said in the New Straits Times' Beyond the Headlines talk show
last Friday.
On Sept 30 last year, it was reported that the MACC was looking into negotiating DPAs with accused persons to allow a case to be suspended for a defined period so the government could retrieve as much of the siphoned funds as possible.
He said while charging criminals was important, the cost of conducting a trial lasting years could be saved and the time could be used to repatriate the funds instead.
In addition to the DPAs, Azam said the MACC also aimed to introduce legislation criminalising misconduct by public officers that leads to loss in government revenue.
"Hong Kong has this law, and we want to look at how effective it is. These are just some of the initiatives, but all of this will take time. We need to conduct research and surveys, and it could take up to three years."