Malaysia fair business for SMEs / Philippines COVID funds question / Thailand anti-corruption campaign backlash

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Promoting a Fair Business Environment in Malaysia (Blog).  “After engaging with key public sector institutions over the last few years on strengthening national anti-corruption measures in Malaysia, UNDP’s approach now establishes efforts to enhance business integrity in the private sector. Working with SMEs helps to ensure a rigorous approach in addressing graft and creating a fair business environment in the country, as they contribute to the dynamism of the Malaysian economy.”

Ashvinder Singh/UNDP: https://www.my.undp.org/content/malaysia/en/home/blog/2021/promoting-a-fair-business-environment-in-malaysia.html

 

Duterte faces fire for missing Covid-19 funds.  “Amid the sickness, death and economic collapse, a recent report by the Commission on Audit (COA), a constitutionally independent body, claimed up to 67.32 billion pesos ($1.3 billion) of Covid-19 management and relief funds were either unspent or underutilized… According to the COA, there were also huge budgetary discrepancies and anomalies under the departments of education, information communications technology, overseas workers welfare administration and others.”

Jason Castaneda/Asia Times: https://asiatimes.com/2021/08/duterte-faces-fire-for-missing-covid-19-funds/  

 

Govt's 'speak up' against graft push ill-timed (Opinion).  “Part of the reason why the "speak up" campaign is seen as "fake" is because it seems to present itself as a bold move when there is nothing bold about it at all…In this time and age when people take to social media every day to question basically every deal that government agencies are involved with -- from regulating the prices of surgical masks to Covid-19 vaccines to antigen test kits -- what has been done about them?”

Atiya Achakulwisut/Bangkok Post: https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/2170227/govts-speak-up-against-graft-push-ill-timed  

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