PUTRAJAYA, July 5 — The Home Ministry (KDN) will hand over to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) the name of a National Registration Department (NRD) officer alleged to have solicited money from applicants for Malaysian citizenship.
Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said he himself had received a complaint regarding the alleged corruption involving the officer concerned.
“I have contacted Tan Sri Azam Baki (MACC chief commissioner) to hand over to the MACC the name of the individual for investigations to continue,” he said at a press conference, earlier today.
The individual was alleged to have contacted applicants and asked for a large sum of money if they wanted their applications to be approved.
Saifuddin Nasution said approvals for matters such as citizenship and birth certificates do not require any payment.
“We have a committee in the NRD that will make decisions based on the law and circulars, from verifying the validity of documents, whether there is merit, to recommending whether to pass them or not.
“Actually, they (applicants) need only to come to collect their documents once approved. If any officer contacts you asking for money (fees) to approve the document and so on, ignore it because this is not a practice in governance now,” he said.
Earlier, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he received information there was an element of abuse of power in the NRD when the process of obtaining a citizenship certificate required a certain fee for those who were eligible for citizenship.
In response to the Prime Minister’s statement, the NRD said in a statement yesterday that it is committed to tackling corruption by implementing improvements to the procedure for issuing identification documents.
— Bernama
