Civil servants made up about 46 per cent of the 414 people detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for various offences so far this year, says MACC deputy chief commissioner (prevention) Datuk Shamshun Bahari Mohd Jamil .

He said 13 of the civil servants arrested held top-level management posts, 44 held managerial and professional posts while the remaining 134 were executives.

"The MACC will focus on combating corruption among civil servants in the next three years. We want to improve the Corruption Perception Index score, where the focus is definitely on corruption in the public sector.

"So, in the next three years, we will focus on the public sector, but it does not mean that other sectors will be ignored," he told reporters after attending the urban wellbeing, housing and local government ministry's monthly assembly here today.

At the event, Shamshun Bahari represented the MACC in signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp) to cooperate in terms of providing advisory and consultancy services, as well as sharing of information on criminal acts of corruption.

In addition, the ministry's staff, led by minister, Tan Sri Noh Omar, also took the corruption-free pledge aimed at increasing the sense of responsibility among civil servants in carrying out their duties and avoiding corruption.

Noh said this gave a clear message to the community that the ministry would carry out its duties in a just manner, and had no bias over any of its staff involved in acts of corruption.

-- BERNAMA