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He said corruption in Hongkong was once worse than that in Malaysia but with the formation of the ICAC, the problem has greatly improved.
Everyone hails it for its efficiency and independence and there is no reason why the MCAC which will be structured along ICAC will not be truly independent.
"I want to emphasise that MCAC will be independent, even the current Anti-Corruption Agency is independent. We cannot say it is unable to do much just because it comes under the Prime Minister's Department," Mohd Tap told Sin Chew Daily in an interview published today.
He said the problem with Malaysians is that they only complain that the authorities are not doing enough but they themselves do not play their part or provide information and evidence to help in investigations.
He said many people complain about blocked drains and blame the local government for not cleaning them, but they never realised that the drains are clogged because of rubbish thrown by them.
He stressed that corruption cannot be rooted out completely. Even Finland, which is perceived as the world's least-corrupt country, only scored nine plus for the anti-corruption perceptions index (ACPI) and not a perfect 10.
If the public do not offer leads to help the authorities clean up corrupt elements, do not expect the situation to improve in the country, he said.
"Without leads (from the public), ACA will find it hard to initiate investigations; without evidence, action cannot be taken against suspects.
"If the public do not change their attitude, even if ACA has 20,000 officers, it still cannot do much," he said.
Mohd Tap said the recent successes of the ACA are before us.
"If you said it (ACA) is not proactive or not independent, the top officials from the immigration would not have been hauled up."
He said according to conservative estimates, if there is no corruption in Malaysia, the government would have saved RM500 million a year.
But the actual figure could be higher, he said.
He said RM500 million is a large sum as it can be used to build schools, roads and for other infrastructure, or even used to raise the living standard of the people.
"But because of the problem of corruption, the government has lost a lot of money. The ACA should not have been there in the first place, it was set up only because it is needed to fight corruption."
He said the institute has, since last year, been carrying out nation-wide surveys on corruption perceptions index to get Malaysians
to give their views and opinions, so that the institute can make recommendations to the government to make improvements.
"Last year, we sent out the questionnaire on perceptions on corruption and the public service delivery system to 10,023 families, 4,031 civil servants and 913 trade organisations.
He said a similar survey conducted this year will be completed by the end of next month and hoped that the results would show an improved score (which means less corruption).
He said IIM received funding from the National Statistics Department and the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department to carry out the survey which, together with the compilation and analysis of statistics, costs RM1 million.
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