MACC will continue to emphasise on cleaning up public sector corruption, besides ensuring the people’s rights are not compromised by irresponsible parties.

Its community education division director, Abdul Samat Kasah said this was to enhance public confidence in the integrity of civil servants as well as to ensure the people's interests.

On that basis, he said MACC had never practiced favouritism in conducting corruption-related investigations, including high-profile cases.

"Our personnel always uphold the principles of freedom, transparency, and professionalism, and are never influenced by the rank or position of an individual being or to be investigated.

"MACC is also a 'colour blind' independent entity that is not tied to any political party, either from the government or the opposition," he added when met at Wisma Bernama after appearing on Bernama News Channel's (BNC) 'Nine 11' programme today.

Abdul Samat said the basic principle in MACC's investigations was not who the perpetrator of the offence was but to focus on what the act was, and the offence committed.

He said this was evident from MACC’s records showing offenders from both the government and opposition parties being brought to justice for various offences.

"However, it should be acknowledged that MACC cannot investigate all the cases submitted, especially those dumped on social networking sites involving allegations of corruption or misconduct.

"In addition to the problem of lack of evidence and witnesses for the purpose of investigation and prosecution, we only have about 700 officers in the investigation division nationwide, and that is insufficient as this job requires a lot of time and workforce," he said.

- Bernama