PUTRAJAYA, March 16 — The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) needs to fill over 700 vacancies to strengthen its services in safeguarding the security of the country’s waters, said its Director-General Maritime Admiral Datuk Mohd Zubil Mat Som.
“Currently, we are still facing a shortage of 20 per cent of the nearly 4,000 approved posts, and we hope to fill them as soon as possible,” he told reporters at a ceremony in conjunction with his retirement at Dataran Pahlawan Negara here today.
Mohd Zubil will retire on March 19 after 41 years in public service, including the MMEA since August 19, 2019. MMEA deputy DG (logistics) Datuk Saiful Lizan Ibrahim will assume his duties.
Mohd Zubil said the MMEA faces a big challenge in maintaining the safety of the country’s waters, especially in relation to cases of smuggling of cigarettes and illegal immigrants.
“In the past, we saw criminal threats as ‘traditional’, but now we see smuggling of cigarettes and immigrants are also linked to money laundering.
“Not only this, behind these (smuggling cases), there is a bigger issue (syndicates) but what we see is only on the surface, so this is what we need to fight,” he said.
Therefore, the MMEA will send its officers to study the laws and rules related to money laundering to boost their knowledge regarding criminal activity.
“Those who qualify will be skilled in identifying aspects of payment or the process in aspects of alleged money laundering. This is to help facilitate operations and case investigations,” Mohd Zubil said.
Meanwhile, in his speech he reminded MMEA members, especially the younger staff, to always have integrity at work, especially when in the field.
— Bernama
