KUCHING, 26 January 2022: Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) and its team unveiled its Organisational Anti-Corruption Plan (OACP) and Corruption Risk Management (CRM) plan, reaffirming its commitment towards creating an agile and transparent organisation practising a high level of corporate governance.
The OACP and CRM plans were launched in conjunction with the pledge ceremony, where STB signed the Declaration of Corruption-Free Pledge with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
The pledge ceremony was formalised by Puan Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor, Chief Executive Officer of Sarawak Tourism Board and witnessed by representatives from MACC.
The Declaration of Corruption-Free Pledge is a promise made voluntarily by the STB team to be more responsible in conducting their duties and carrying out ethical activities during their holding of office. It also sends a clear signal that the organisation and its employees will not commit corrupt acts and will work towards creating an operating environment that is corruption-free, including in its interactions with business partners and the Government.
Speaking at the event, YB Dato Sri Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry & Performing Arts Sarawak and Minister of Youth, Sport & Entrepreneur Development Sarawak said, “A clean business environment in our industry will help develop our country’s economy and paint a better future. The tourism industry is important to Sarawak’s economy as it is one of the main contributors to the state’s economic growth.”
“This is crucial for our state to be able to entice investors to have joint ventures and form strategic partnerships in developing the Sarawak tourism industry,” he added.
Puan Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor, Chief Executive Officer of Sarawak Tourism Board said, “The launch of our OACP and CRM plans, and the signing of the pledge today, marks a very important milestone as it reaffirms our steadfast resolve in reinventing STB into a high-performance entity, free from corrupt practices and abuse of power. It sets the tone in promoting integrity and good governance at all levels, ensuring that we stay on course towards realising our goals for the state of Sarawak and its people, leading to shared prosperity for all.
“STB is committed to the highest level of integrity, transparency and good governance in the conduct of its operations. The event today reiterates our fight against all forms of corruption at all levels, as we believe it is the collective duty and responsibility of all members of society, particularly those serving in government agencies, to achieve a nation free from all forms of corruption and abuse of power.”
The OACP is a five-year plan aimed at strengthening governance, integrity and anti-corruption controls. It reflects the stance and the spirit of STB’s top management in improving the integrity and effectiveness of the organisation’s governance in line with the Government’s call to make it mandatory for statutory bodies to develop their respective OACP.
This plan will ensure the work culture at STB is based on integrity and makes corruption one of the main enemies to maintain the well-being of the country and the organisation in particular. The plan will be an effective management tool that could be used as a guide in managing corruption issues systematically. The plan will be implemented over a five-year period from 2021 to 2025.
The CRM is a management process that helps in corruption prevention initiatives. CRM works to identify structural weaknesses in an organisation that may facilitate corruption, provides a risk-based framework for all employees to participate in identifying the risk factors and treatments, and embeds corruption prevention within a well-established governance framework. The STB CRM plan focuses on analysing root causes, identifying corruption schemes, determining the impact to the organisation and its risk treatment plans.
For more information about Sarawak, log on to Sarawak Tourism Board’s website: https://sarawaktourism.com.
(Your Stories: STB)
