Corruption in Malaysia

According to a 2013 public survey in Malaysia by Transparency International, a majority of the surveyed households perceived Malaysian political parties to be highly corrupt. A quarter of the surveyed households consider the government's efforts in the fight against corruption to be ineffective. Corruption in Malaysia generally involves political connections still playing an important role in the outcome of public tenders.

Business executives surveyed in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014 reveal that unethical behaviours of companies constitute a disadvantage for doing business in Malaysia. Government contracts are sometimes awarded to well-connected companies, and the policies of awarding huge infrastructure projects to selected Bumiputera companies without open tender continue to exist.

On 28 July 2020, former prime minister Najib Razak was convicted on seven counts of abuse of power, money laundering and criminal breach of trust by a Malaysian High Court in relation to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal. He was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and fined RM210 million.

Corruption Perceptions Index

Transparency International's 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, which scored 180 countries on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"), gave Malaysia a score of 47. When ranked by score, Malaysia ranked 61st among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the worst score was 12 (ranked 180), and the average score was 43. For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among Asia Pacific countries Template:Refn was 87, the lowest score was 17 and the average score was 45. As of 2023, Malaysia's score has fallen each year since a high of 53 in 2018.

Transparency International lists Malaysia's key corruption challenges as:

1. Political and Campaign Financing: Donations (e.g.: USD700Million) from both corporations and individuals to political parties and candidates are not limited in Malaysia. Political parties are also not legally required to report on what funds are spent during election campaigns. Due in part to this political landscape, Malaysia's ruling party for over 55 years has funds highly disproportionate to other parties. This unfairly impacts campaigns in federal and state elections and can disrupt the overall functioning of a democratic political system.
2. “Revolving door”: Individuals regularly switch back and forth between working for both the private and public sectors in Malaysia. Such circumstances – known as the ‘revolving door’ – allow for active government participation in the economy and public-private relations to become elusive. The risk of corruption is high and regulating public-private interactions becomes difficult, also allowing for corruption to take place with impunity. Another factor which highlights the extent of ambiguity between the public sector and private corporate ownership is that Malaysia is also a rare example of a country where political parties are not restricted in possessing corporate enterprises.
3. Access to information: As of April 2013, no federal Freedom of Information Act exists in Malaysia. Although, Selangor and Penang are the only Malaysian states out of thirteen to pass freedom of information legislation, the legislation still suffers from limitations. Should a federal freedom of information act be drafted it would conflict with the Official Secrets Act – in which any document can be officially classified as secret, making it exempt from public access and free from judicial review. Additional laws such as the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Sedition Act 1949 (subsequently replaced with the National Harmony Act), and the Internal Security Act 1969 also ban the dissemination of official information and offenders can face fines or imprisonment. Malaysia suffers from corporate fraud in the form of intellectual property theft. Counterfeit production of several goods including IT products, automobile parts, etc., are prevalent.

In 2013, Malaysia was identified in a survey by Ernst and Young as one of the most corrupt countries in the region according to the perceptions of foreign business leaders, along with neighbouring countries and China. The survey asked whether it was likely that each country would take shortcuts to achieve economic targets.

Types of corruption

Corruption in Immigration Enforcement

Despite periodic actions by the government to crack down on petty corruption in the Immigration Department, bribe-taking and fraudulent issuance of visas has been a long-standing problem, particularly among immigration officers at the KLIA and KLIA2 terminals of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. In 2016, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) uncovered a scheme in Selangor, in which immigration officers collected passport application fees from travellers and then submitted fraudulent paperwork declaring them disabled, resulting in fee waivers that amounted to over 1 million Malaysian ringgit by the time the scheme was exposed. In a December, 2016 statement to the Malaysian press, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi estimated that over half of the 1500 immigration officers working in the KLIA and KLIA2 terminals had participated in a range of corrupt practices, including fraudulent issuance of visas, tampering with Immigration Department data, and collusion with human-trafficking agents.

List of corruption case

List of corruption cases in Malaysia

Year reported	Case Title	Status/Result	Charged/Alleged Person	Description
2022	LCS Scandal	Former Malaysian navy chief, Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor, was charged with approving payments of RM21.08 million to three Singapore-based companies without the agreement of the company’s board of directors. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.	Ahmad Ramli Mohd Nor
2015	1Malaysia Development Berhad Scandal	Suspect, Low Taek Jho (a.k.a. Jho Low), currently on run Najib Razak sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment.	Low Taek Jho Najib Razak
2023	Covid-19 economic recovery package scandal		Muhyiddin Yassin	On 9 March 2023, Muhyiddin was detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission after being questioned over a Covid-19 economic recovery package launched by his government. Muhyiddin denied the allegations. He was accused of sourcing $51m in bribes from companies who hoped to benefit from the emergency government spending program, and charged with gratification and money laundering. He allegedly abused his position for gratification from three entities and an individual for his ally, Bersatu. He pleaded not guilty on the charges. Judge Azura then fixed bail at RM2mil in two sureties and ordered Muhyiddin to surrender his passport.
2015	Sabah State Water Department corruption probe	All the suspects pleaded not guilty to 37 counts of money laundering involving RM61.57 million. In March 2022, former Sabah water department deputy director Teo Chee Kong was acquitted of 146 charges brought against him. However, MACC decided to charge RM 30 million compound against Teo. Teo later paid the compound amount in full to the Malaysian federal government.
2022	Kuala Lumpur police officer extort for bribe		Royal Malaysia Police officer	On 14 April 2022, a video posted on Facebook allegedly showing a Singaporean man giving a bribe to Malaysian police in Kuala Lumpur after they allegedly asked for it. The police officer accused the Singaporean for violation of several rules such as driving without a Malaysia driving licence and carrying a print-out of his NRIC as his passport was kept in the hotel, although some of the accusation were not legitimate violations. The Singaporean was also accused for driving in the opposite direction.
2022	Johor Bahru traffic police officer extort for bribe	The Johor police chief told the media that the officer's identity is confirmed and he has been transferred out to a position where he will not have contact with the public, and investigation will be launched.	Royal Malaysia Police traffic police officer	On October 2022, the traffic police officer stopped a Singaporean couple's vehicle and claimed the driver for ran two red lights and instructed the vehicle to follow the police car back to the station. However, after travelling for awhile, the vehicle were made to stopped under a underpass. The officer allegedly told the husband exit the vehicle and pay a fine of RM500 on the spot, the officer allegedly took the husband's wallet, took out two $50 Singapore Dollars notes, put the money in his record book and left.
2018	Immigration officer torn passport and solicit bribe	The traveller reprotedly met the senior personnel from JIM Johor on Sept 26, facilitated by the ICA.	An immigration officer	On 24 September 2018, an immigration officer at the Sultan Abu Bakar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) Complex allegedly torn a Singaporean's passport and hinted the Singaporean traveller for bribe in exchange for helping the traveller to enter Malaysia. The traveller asked for his passport back and returned to Singapore, and reported the incident to Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).