KUALA LUMPUR: The police should not be tasked with curbing corruption,especially in countries rife with graft, said an anti-graft consultant.

"The breakthrough from fighting corruption came from taking the structure of fighting corruption out of the police," Professor Jon S T Quah said at the first national conference on Challenges for Institutional and Political Reform in Political Financing in Malaysia organised by Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) here today.

The former professor of political science at the National University of Singapore cited the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in colonial Singapore as an example, where it was set up despite findings of extensive corruption within the police force.

This came to light when investigations revealed that police inspectors had stolen S$400,000 (RM979,107.93) worth of opium during the Opium Hijacking Scandal in 1951, he said.

"If you offer a child candy, do you expect the child not to take the candy?" he asked.

Furthermore, the ACB could not effectively fight graft because it was understaffed, did not prioritise corruption cases in favour of more serious crimes and was hesitant to investigate offences by police officers, he added.

Instead, governments must implement a comprehensive anti-corruption law and provide sufficient funding, trained manpower and equipment to independent anti-corruption agencies, said Quah, adding that this required political will.

Furthermore, the law must be reviewed periodically to counter loopholes, while amendments or new laws must be introduced to deal with unexpected problems, he added.

Quah listed other measures to combat corruption, such as cutting red tape to reduce opportunities for corrupt civil servants to take advantage of businesses eager to "jump the queue" in processing licences and forms.

For instance, South Korea has set up a Regulatory Reform Committee in 1998 which eliminated 5,226, or 48% of business regulations a year after it began operations, according to Quah.

In addition, corruption-prone government agencies that had access to the public, large budgets and plentiful opportunities to commit graft must review their procedures from time to time to decrease opportunities for corruption, he said.

Citing a 1999 report from Robert Beschel of the Asian Development Bank, he said Hong Kong's corruption problems were less severe than the Philippines' because the former had a more effective means of detecting and punishing offenders, with offenders 35 times more likely to be caught in Hong Kong.