KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27 — Putrajaya's efforts to improve governance through structural changes and reforms are still ongoing but the measures may not be visible right now, a minister said today after Malaysia's drop in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perception Index.

Datuk Paul Low, the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of integrity and governance said that the government viewed the decline “seriously,” pointing out that the CPI was one of the key indicators which has been used as an overall measure of Malaysia’s progress in its efforts to combat corruption and improve governance under the Government Transformation Program (GTP).

“The government wishes to assure the public that progressive transformation to improve governance through structural changes and process reforms are ongoing, although many of these measures will only become increasingly visible to the public in the near future as their implementation progresses and is more embedded into the delivery system,” Low said in a statement.

“We recognise that there is also a pressing need to regulate political funding within the country, for which the National Consultative Committee on Political Financing was specifically formed last year and is now undertaking a comprehensive review,” he added.

Low also said that it was crucial to empower enforcement institutions in terms of their capacity, powers and independence.

Malaysia has suffered a drop in Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perception Index, with a ranking of 54 compared to 50 in 2014, based on official figures released today.Malaysia's latest ranking puts it behind other developing countries such as Jordan (45), Nambia (45) and Rwanda (44).

The country’s score also dropped by two points to 50 in 2015 from 52 in 2014, Transparency International said.

Other countries whose scores also declined in the region are the Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong, the report added.

Last year, Malaysia ranked 50th out of 175 countries studied by the global anti-graft organisation with an index score of 52, two points better than its 2013 score of 50.

The country recorded a score of 49 in the 2012 edition.

Resource : Malay Mail Online