The Malaysian enforcement agency integrity commission: A study on the perspectives of the royal Malaysian customs department

• Main Authors: Ayub, Zainal Amin, Wahab, Harlida Abdul, Yusoff, Zuryati Mohamed, Zan, Zainal Md, Shariffuddin, Mohd Dino Khairri
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Effectiveness; Enforcement; Integrity
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0212478

The Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) has been established to strengthen integrity within the enforcement agencies in Malaysia. After more than ten years of EAIC’s establishment, it is important to see the views of the enforcement agencies and the public towards the watchdog commission upon them. This article seeks to examine the perspective of one of the enforcement agencies under EAIC namely the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) towards EAIC, and whenever relevant, compared it with the perspective of the public. The study uses the socio-legal methodology involving qualitative and quantitative approaches. Apart from the doctrinal study, the questionnaire using the Likert scale was distributed to respondents amongst RMCD officers. The finding shows that the effectiveness of EAIC in instilling and enforcing integrity within RMCD is moderate, while the public generally inclines to agree with the views of RMCD. The study suggests that the EAIC remains the body to oversee and enforce integrity in Malaysian enforcement agencies despite a moderate level of effectiveness based on the perspective of RMCD. The suggestions also are to increase the visibility of EAIC and to amend provisions of the EAIC Act (Act 700), to enhance the power and effectiveness of EAIC.