ACA: No Special Preparation For Anwar By-Election. No Surprise Who'll Be Doing The Bribing Then

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) is not making any special preparation ahead of the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election which has been dubbed by many parties as "the mother of all by-elections."

ACA Director-General Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan on Saturday said the strength of their workforce at the Penang office was sufficient to monitor the by-election where nomination day had been fixed for Aug 16 while polling would be on Aug 26.

"That is what you (media) presumed (of the by-election's reputation) but to us it is nothing and it's normal," he told a news conference.

The by-election was called following the decision of Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail, who is PKR president, to relinquish her Permatang Pauh seat to make way for her husband, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is PKR advisor.

Said said ACA could not afford to give special focus on the by-election under the present scenario where they also had to monitor the Umno branch and divisional elections.

Furthermore, he said the number of complaints concerning political corruption was relatively small compared to complaints on irregularities in the awarding of projects or supplies of equipment.

Meanwhile, he said ACA had received over 10,000 information on corrupt practices within the first half of this year but only about 3,000 were found to have substantial grounds.

He added that the majority of the information received were in the form of flying letters with baseless and slander elements or irrelevant to the functions of the agency.

He said that they also had to assist to rechannel the irrelevant complaints to the right government departments and agencies. (Bernama)

***** The ACA D-G said that the agency "could not afford to give special focus on the by-election under the present scenario where they also had to monitor the Umno branch and divisional elections." Well that's being pretty honest and upfront!

So the buggers know that the most corrupt culprits are all gathered in one political party. Yet they can do precious little. Sometimes you can't help but feel sorry for these ACA blokes. They're caught in a perpetual dilemma. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.