Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad denies earlier media reports that MACC has suggested it conduct its own corruption index. — Bernama pic

PETALING JAYA, Feb 26 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) clarified today that it had suggested an independent body run a proposed corruption index.

Chief commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad denied earlier media reports that MACC had suggested it conduct its own corruption index.

“We proposed for the government to conduct the nation's corruption index,” he was quoted as saying at an event in Putrajaya today by news portal Malaysiakini.

Dzulkifli said this is what he had mentioned in an earlier press conference and asked the media to double check their recordings.

On February 22, Dzulkifli was quoted by Bernama as saying MACC would create a more effective special corruption index to analyse the corruption level in the country and that it would be submitted to the cabinet in about three months.

The proposal came after Transparency International ranked Malaysia 62nd out of 180 countries in its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017.

Malaysia is down seven places since 2016 and this is the lowest ranking ever attained by Malaysia since the CPI was established in 1994.