An empirical assessment of employee integrity in the public sector of Malaysia

Purpose - Integrity is a critical issue as it could lead to failures in governance, fraud, inefficacy, corruption and weak financial management particularly in the public sector. At present, the public sector is a matter of global concern because of the constant cases of failures in governance, fraud, inefficacy and corruption. As such, this sector has been pressurized to provide justification of the sources and usages of public resources and to improve their service performance as the public has the right to monitor the public sector management's transparency and efficacy. This study aims to evaluate the state of present integrity practices among public sector employees from various Malaysian service schemes. Design/methodology/approach - Primary data were collected using a questionnaire survey approach with 194 heads of departments in the Malaysian federal ministries. The collection of data was according to the perspective of 13 factors in integrity practices using a five-point Likert scale. Factor analysis and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. In addition, data reliability was checked by Cronbach's alpha test; data normality was examined by Skewness and Kurtosis tests, and data validity was tested by using Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test and Barlett's test. Findings - The findings show that 92.6 per cent of the participants reported that they practised integrity within their departments. Nevertheless, the priority for these integrity factors varies according to the service schemes. In general, the departments of finance, audits and administration had an above-average integrity practice level; however, the practice of the accounting scheme is below the general average level. Practical implications - These findings of the study will help policymakers to take necessary steps to improve the practices of integrity in the public sector to create a more dependable and efficient public sector in Malaysia. Originality/value - This is an original study based on primary data that assess the performance of practicing integrity in the public sector of Malaysia.