Anti Corruption

While we primarily advocate for a Public Ombudsman, this measure is a stopgap for the predominantly failing internal investigations.

To fix this glaring hole in today’s failed procedures, we must:

1. Create a single manual for all public servant administrators on the minimum requirements in misconduct investigations, including a thorough explanation of the legal principles, evidence, jurisdiction, time limits, witnesses, and other aspects of “natural justice”

2. This manual must be clearly explained so that even the lowest-level, most junior of administrators can easily understand the enormous responsibilities of their oversight position. It must include examples and references.

3. This manual must be justiciable in that obvious violations of the Code of Conduct can be taken to Court by ordinary citizens.

4. This manual must include the contact information of a centralized public service department whose only role is to guide and teach this manual to officers.

5. All public servants with any oversight (i.e., subordinate officers) must learn the manual and take a competency exam over its provisions; only passing marks may be promoted to oversight positions, with possible renewals.

6. This manual must be made public and easily accessible to any individual; the latest version must always be available online for free.

When the Public Ombudsman (PO) receives reports with child victims—and especially school-based reports where the perpetrator is a public servant—a special Child Unit in the PO must take over the case.

This PO Child Unit must contain:

 Experienced investigators with years of child witness and child survivor testimony-gathering for civil & criminal courts

 Experienced investigators with a deep understanding of the MOE’s corruption culture

 Experienced litigators able to protect and gather child witnesses in disciplinary, civil, and/or criminal proceedings

 Experienced abuse psychologists and medical officers able to both protect a victimized child and ensure evidence is protected

Further, the PO Child Unit should expand over time to include PO Officers placed in critically underserved schools to both investigate misconduct and enforce a safe learning environment.

At the school, these PO Officers gather anonymous and direct reports from teachers, students, and parents; gather evidence; establish whistleblower protection; and wield disciplinary jurisdiction over all school officers.

A non-exhaustive list of such critically underserved schools: high Orang Asli population, high OKU student population, high impoverished/B40 population, poor local governance/quality of public service, or schools with a history of serious and/or long-term misconduct.

Because families can finally expect an independent oversight system, Child Ombudsman Units are often overwhelmed with demand shortly after launching and thus quickly show their effectiveness, a rarity in public policy (UNESCO 2017/8 GEM report; page 31).