Encik Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid: Prevention of corruption in project management Opening remarks by Mr Encik Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid, Assistant Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia), at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Talk entitled "Prevention of Corruption in Project Management", Kuala Lumpur, 3 April 2017. * * * It is my great honour and pleasure to welcome officers from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), particularly the speaker for today, Assistant Commissioner Mr Mohan Munusamy. A warm welcome is also extended to the project teams comprising the steering committees, contractors and consultants. My appreciation also goes to all my fellow Bank staff who are here today. In more recent times, the Bank and MACC have collaborated on a number of fronts. The recent strategic cooperation between the Bank and MACC, together with LHDN to combat financial crime, particularly corruption, signifies our commitment to work together in this area. From the Bank’s perspective, this demonstrates our effort to instil integrity for and beyond our regulatees in the financial market. Integrity is taken very seriously at the Bank where we continually and consciously maintain the highest standards, given that we enforce these standards on our regulatees in our supervisory capacity. We proactively manage integrity hazards and corruption risks and tackle those risks pre-emptively. Corruption is not simply a crime on its own. Its consequences can be far-reaching in terms of economic losses and irreparable reputation damage. Thus, we must actively keep abreast of the management of integrity risks.
Let me share with you another observation from Preet Bharara. A common element in many of the frauds his office has prosecuted is the failure of colleagues to call out bad conduct by raising their hands. This is so telling of a culture that condones or promotes misconduct. People see something, but do not say something. And, it is so shortsighted. It prevents problems from being addressed while they are small. By not raising their hands, these colleagues are “quietly adding risk to your books [and] invisibly enlarging your liabilities.”8 They are also tacitly encouraging bad conduct by skewing incentives. There may be many reasons for choosing silence over raising your hand. You may face a conflict of loyalties. It’s uncomfortable to tell on a colleague. You may think that the problem will just go away, or that calling attention to a problem will harm the firm. Raising your hand is difficult. But, it is also absolutely necessary. As rising leaders in the industry, you need to lead by 4/6  BIS central bankers' speeches  example. In doing so, you will make it easier for others to follow your lead. My final message is a request that each of you commit to a candid assessment of yourselves, your firms and your industry. For Adam Smith, candid observation was a cornerstone of economic behavior: “We suppose ourselves the spectators of our own behavior, and endeavor to imagine what effect it would, in this light, produce upon us.