EAIC Totally Ineffective

Everyone of us know that why there is an insistence in calling for the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) despite already having the one Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) in existence in dealing with such.

Well, even the best known and no-nonsense chief executive officer (CEO) of the EAIC, Nor Afizah Hanum knows what is wrong with the current situation. Correct us if we are wrong. Currently, the EAIC is really short of manpower in carrying out its responsibilities. The EAIC has only one investigation officer which was seconded from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Previously, EAIC has six investigation officers in its roll call but it was eventually withdrawn and returned to MACC. Therefore, we suppose the EAIC do not even have sufficient staffs to call for a hearing or public inquiry sessions.

Basically, the EAIC cannot perform its duties and responsibilities effectively with having only one investigation officer to probe about more than ten recorded cases it had received so far from nationwide pertaining to the complaints on misdeeds and wrongdoings of officers from various enforcement agencies. The worst thing is, the EAIC, like the MACC and the Elections Commission (EC) are placed under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department (PMD). So, can the EAIC be independent enough in carrying out its investigations or are they really effective in doing anything you would name it?

It is very clear that there are a lots of grievances within the EAIC itself. And we truly believe that the CEO of the EAIC, Nor Afizah had earlier voiced her grievances and various shortcomings of the commission under her charge to her superiors in the PMD, guess what? Not even a soul would care to bother about her. So, what we thought is she had also gone to the mainstream media to voice her concerns over the ineffectiveness of the EAIC under her charge due to lack of manpower and funds to generate an effective service, and the mainstream media could have snubbed her too. And that is why she has gone to the online news portal to voice her grievances over the ineffectiveness and shortcomings in the EAIC that had gravely prevented the commission from expanding its duties and responsibilities throughout the nation.

Then, in the end of the day, when her tenure as the CEO of EAIC comes to an end, the government would decide not to renew her contract reasoning that she had brought all the grievances and shortcomings of the EAIC to the public instead of "talking to her superiors" in the PMD. After that, there goes the fate of the EAIC, right into the drain.

Now, coming back to the effectiveness of the EAIC again, when we went into the commission's website, what we found is there are six commissioners being appointed to the EAIC, then we would assumed that the first commissioner in line is the current EAIC chairman, Datuk Heliliah Mohd Yusoff, followed by the rest of the commissioners as members of the board of EAIC. However, as of todate, we have not seen any of these commissioners carrying out their roles actively nor effectively. How frequent did they have their board meetings? Did they know all the various grievances and shortcomings within the EAIC? Are they in effective communication with the CEO of EAIC regularly? How often do these EAIC commissioners conduct their hearings or public inquiries?

And, judging from the total number of staffs they currently have, as per what has been listed in their website, we would confirm that these small number of staffs in the EAIC, including the CEO herself are struggling to get their job done, but in the end of the day, they would get nothing done, just because of their various shortcomings. EAIC do not even have the sufficient budget to carry out their course of investigations nationwide nor to have their freehand in hiring and appointing the investigation officers of their own.

The EAIC is under the jurisdiction of the PMD and the prime minister needs to be responsive to the people on why the EAIC has been so ineffective. It looks like the prime minister has been making the fool out of our people by promising that EAIC would so much better than the proposed IPCMC. But, what has been reported was, it is the EAIC who is having too much grievances and shortcomings until they couldn't even carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively.

So, do not blame us on insisting the IPCMC to be in place. Please do not fools us with the EAIC again.