Govt mulls standardising integrated enforcement of various agencies

MALACCA: The government is studying the possibility of setting up a standard integrated action plan for various enforcement agencies involved in protecting national interests including reducing leakages of national revenue collection from cross-border crimes.
Deputy Finance Minister I Datuk Othman Aziz (pix) said the integrated action plan would coordinate and promote closer cooperation among the country's enforcement agencies including the Customs Department, police, Immigration Department and the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA).
He said it would reduce overlapping workload in enforcement activities as well as establishing a more efficient and systematic integrated system.
"Now we can no longer work individually or within one agency to protect the country's security as each department or agency has its own strength and a combination of enforcement departments would ensure efforts to protect the nation's interest become more sustainable.
"Nonetheless, there are several areas which needed to be looked in detail especially from the legal aspect as the regulations of each department are different," he said.
He was speaking to reporters after opening the Enforcement Agency Collaboration Seminar here today which was attended by Customs Department director-general, Datuk Seri Khazali Ahmad.
Elaborating further, Othman said among the aspects identified which could be implemented under the integrated action plan was coordinating data of various enforcement agencies in a system which is accessible to all of them.
"Coordinating enforcement data is aimed at curbing smuggling of goods into the country without paying tax, as well as smuggling of cooking oil and humans at the country's border," he said.
He said the cooperation to be established under the plan would boost the morale of enforcement personnel via the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS).
In this regard, he said the seminar themed "Driving Civil Service Success through Excellent Leadership, Modernisation Organisation and Cooperation among Agency Implementers," was an important platform to identify the areas and opportunities to transform cooperation under NBOS. — Bernama