Malaysia rotates civil servants to tackle corruption

The Malaysian government has enforced that it will rotate its civil servants every three years, in an attempt to tackle corruption within ministries.

Once officers hit a three year mark, they will be evaluated, and transferred to another ministry, a spokesperson from the Prime Minister’s Office told GovInsider.

“This is certainly not a one-off affair but will be done continuously and will also involve officers managing grants, funds, permits, licences and law enforcement,” said Dr Ali Hamsa, Chief Secretary to the Government.

“For the first phase, 80 officers holding sensitive posts in finance, development and procurement divisions were transferred effective April 18,” he added.

The regulation to rotate officers has always been in place, but it was enforced after a finance officer allegedly embezzled some US$24 million (RM100 million) from the Youth and Sports Ministry fund over a period of six years, The Star Online reported.