TAXONOMY OF HUMAN CHARACTERS IN THE GOVERNANCE OF MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT PRACTICES – A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Abstract

This paper attempts to comprehensively expound the phenomenon that drives the Malaysian government procurement practitioners to uphold integrity or to commit corruption. According to the 2018 Transparency International Report on Corruption Perceptions Index, Malaysia’s ranking dropped to 61st among 180 countries. The government procurement is a vital item for the government accountability on how the public monies is administered because considerable fraction of the taxpayers’ monies is used for procurement which necessitates the process to be efficiently managed to guarantee a superior service delivery and to uphold the public interest. This paper underpins on Transaction Cost Theory to explain the occurrence of corrupt practices; the Virtue Theory, Al-Ghazali’s Theory of the Soul and the philosophy of Human Governance to explain the inner self at work in influencing decision to commit corruption or not. This paper applies the phenomenological method to understand the essence of participants’ lived experiences pertaining to integrity and corrupt practices. An in-depth interview concerning the Taxonomy of Characters are to be collected from government procurement practitioners, suppliers and anti-corruption investigators. The Theoretical Framework postulated is as follows: the phenomenon that drives the behaviour to uphold integrity is the Soul-at-Peace, where Intellect predominates Appetition (Appetite) and Self- assertion (Anger) resulting in virtue characters. What encapsulates this Taxonomy of Characters is the philosophy of Human Governance; to commit corruption is the Inciting Soul. This happens when Intellect becomes subservient to Appetition and Self-assertion resulting in vice characters. Nonetheless, if a person is at the level of Self-reproaching Soul, his character vacillates and consequently determines his behavior. Thus, it is posited that: Corruption as an opportunistic behavior continues to inflate costs of B2G market transactions unless Human Governance is actualised to act in a manner to uphold integrity. Hence, Human Governance which manifests through behaviour of integrity can counteract corruption