Bumiputera economic development agenda plagued by a myriad of problems

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 5): The Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (WKB2030) Document points out that the implementation of the Bumiputera agenda could not be achieved as it had been plagued by kleptocracy, nepotism, cronyism, corrupt practices as well as distribution leakages in the supply chain.

According to the document, corruption in Malaysia reached a critical level with the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) putting the nation at 61st spot among 180 countries compared to 39th place from 145 nations in 2004.

Data from the 2017 Global Corruption Barometer survey found that 60% of Malaysians were of the view that graft was on the rise, 57% also believed the police were corrupt, 48% claimed council members and tax officials were involved in graft and 46% were of the view company executives were also involved in corrupt practices.

Studies on government acquistions undertaken by the Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) showed that there were leakages in the distribution of contract value received by Bumiputera contractors.

According to the document of the vision launched by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad here today, the distribution leakages had stifled the nation’s economic development goals and denying the Bumiputera contractors supply chain its full benefits.

“According to 2015 estimates, from the total of RM1.1 trillion government acquisitions in the last 20 years, a major portion was awarded to Bumiputera contractors.

“However, the contributions from Bumputera-owned Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to the Gross Domestic Product is still low, less than 9%,” the document stated.