Forensics

Anti-bribery and anti-corruption (ABAC) compliance

Malaysia’s anti-corruption regime is in a sustained enforcement phase, with rising expectations from regulators, prosecutors, investors, customers, and business partners. The focus has shifted from intent to impact—stakeholders want evidence of effective, risk-based controls. Organisations must meet these demands in ways that support performance, sustain value, and protect the brand.

At the centre of this landscape is Section 17A of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009, which has been in force since 1 June 2020. Section 17A introduces corporate liability for failing to prevent bribery. Under this provision, a commercial organisation can be prosecuted if a person associated with it—an employee, director, agent, distributor, joint venture partner, or certain suppliers—corruptly gives, agrees to give, promises, or offers gratification to obtain or retain a business advantage. The law applies to Malaysian-incorporated entities and foreign companies doing business in Malaysia. Enforcement remains active, with authorities continuing to pursue cases under this corporate liability provision.

Section 17A also creates personal exposure for directors and those managing the organisation. They’re deemed to have committed the offence unless they can show it happened without their consent or involvement—and that they exercised due diligence.

Beyond the MACC Act, Malaysian businesses operate within a broader compliance perimeter. Anti-bribery controls intersect with obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, as well as guidance from regulators such as Bank Negara Malaysia and the Securities Commission Malaysia.

For many organisations, the exposure doesn’t stop at Malaysia’s borders. The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the UK Bribery Act (UKBA) have wide extraterritorial reach. They’re often triggered by cross-border operations, listings, counterparties, or transactions. The UKBA’s corporate offence of failing to prevent bribery mirrors Section 17A and reinforces the expectation that businesses implement adequate procedures—especially in third-party relationships. The FCPA’s accounting provisions demand accurate books and records and effective internal controls—expectations that align naturally with a Section 17A-compliant control environment.

Building a programme that meets Malaysian requirements while addressing FCPA and UKBA exposure reduces duplication, strengthens assurance, and makes global stakeholder reviews more straightforward.

What should Malaysian companies do to implement Adequate Procedures?

As of 1 June 2020, Malaysian companies are required to implement ‘adequate procedures’ to prevent bribery. The consequences of failing to do so are severe: if someone associated with the company offers or pays a bribe and is caught, the company’s directors or senior managers are liable to a fine of not less than 10 times the value of the bribe or RM 1 million, whichever is higher, or imprisonment for up to 20 years, or both.

This sobering prospect may not yet be on your radar—or may not feel like an immediate priority. But directors and senior managers need to recognise one thing: tackling bribery is no longer a ‘nice to have’. It’s a must-have. And if you ignore it, you could be personally liable.

But what exactly are these ‘adequate procedures?’ In December 2018, the Malaysian government published guidelines to define them. These guidelines aren’t prescriptive—and for good reason. They’re designed to apply to every commercial organisation in Malaysia, so they focus on high-level principles that each organisation must interpret and implement based on its size, complexity, and risk profile.

The introduction makes this clear with its principle of proportionality: “These guidelines are not intended to be prescriptive and it should not be assumed that ‘one-size-fits-all.’ They should be applied practically, in proportion to the scale, nature, industry, risk and complexity of the organisation.”

The Malaysian government’s guidelines use TRUST as a mnemonic to summarise the principles behind adequate procedures.

As part of PwC’s purpose, that is ‘to build trust in society and solve important problems’, we help organisations perform anti-corruption risk assessments worldwide—for more than a decade. We help you understand what good practice looks like and what regulators expect from a robust compliance programme. After all, the US, UK, and other countries have enforced similar extraterritorial legislation and commercial requirements for years.

More importantly, drawing on our deep understanding of control failures and weaknesses—gained from many of the world’s most significant anti-corruption investigations—we know how to help your company design and implement controls that can withstand real-world tests.

Please reach out to Alex Tan or Tee Chuen Shiong to have a conversation about your own compliance programme today. Contact details at the bottom of this page. 

Fraud risk management

Every business faces fraud risks—asset misappropriation, bribery, financial misrepresentation, among others. To reduce exposure, organisations need effective policies, procedures, and infrastructure in place.

Fraud risk assessment helps management understand the risks unique to their business and evaluate internal controls to address them.

We can help you:

• Undertake a comprehensive fraud risk assessment

• Implement or evaluate existing anti-fraud programmes and controls

• Design fraud response and remediation plans

• Develop tailored fraud monitoring programmes

• Conduct training to raise awareness of fraud risks

• Understand what leading practice looks like

Our services bring structure and fresh perspective—helping you prevent fraud and emerge stronger when it occurs.

Forensic accounting

Forensic accounting applies the skills and training of qualified accountants to investigations, disputes, reviews ,and other procedures. The findings often end up in court, so precision and clarity matter.

Our professionals have experience in:

• Unravelling complex accounting records to reveal the true nature of transactions

• Detecting false or creative accounting entries

• Performing procedures for shareholder disputes and other civil matters, working closely with legal professionals

• Quantifying the value of losses experienced by an organisation or individual, and acting as an expert witness based on our work

Ultimately, the value of forensic accounting lies in making complex financial information clear—using visuals, graphs and language that non-accountants can understand.

Dispute resolution

Business disputes and regulatory probes are becoming more disruptive and complex. Success often depends on the depth and credibility of your data, the strength of your analysis, and how both support a winning legal strategy.

Complex litigation requires insight and experience—especially from professionals who know how to interpret financial records and documents. When faced with this challenge, companies and their counsel can call on our litigation support team. We help gather financial data, quantify exposure, and reconstruct financial information.

We also provide expert witness evidence in legal proceedings and present facts that withstand cross-examination.

Our professionals have experience in:

• Fact and expert witness testimony

• Performing a wide range of financial procedures

• Quantifying damages

• Serving as arbitrators, mediators or special masters

• Business analytics, including quantitative analysis and optimisation of operating metrics

Our team has presented investigation findings and given evidence on behalf of clients before the Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam High Courts, and has testified as fact witnesses in arbitration and local tribunal courts. 

Digital forensics & eDiscovery

We operate forensic technology laboratories in over 30 territories—including Malaysia—to deliver rapid, efficient responses to fraud investigations, disputes, regulatory matters, cyber breaches, litigation, whistleblower allegations, and other crises. We help you plan for uncertainty, extract insight from your data and make informed decisions under pressure.

Our team uses industry-leading tools to forensically process, store, and review electronic evidence. We have the knowledge, experience, and certifications to handle evidence that meets local and international regulatory requirements.

We can assist you by:

• Forensically preserving electronic data from desktops, laptops, servers, and mobile devices

• Reviewing and analysing structured and unstructured data as part of an investigation

• Making electronic documents available for legal counsel or management to review on a secure online platform

• Providing expert witness testimony in court when our findings are used in litigation

Data analytics

When you use data to drive innovation, there’s no room for error. Data quality starts with strong governance. It must be organised, relevant, accurate, and easy to understand. We’ll help you build the right framework, create the strategy, optimise infrastructure, processes, and systems—and foster a culture that makes your organisation truly data-driven.

We also help analyse suspicious transactions by interrogating enterprise resource planning (ERP), financial, and transactional systems to uncover red flags and unusual patterns that may indicate fraud, malpractice, or process weaknesses. Anti-money laundering and economic sanctions are part of our expertise too—we perform suspicious transaction look-back analysis and filter testing to support compliance and remediation activities.

Licensing management

Strategic partnerships often unlock competitive advantages—innovation, growth, pricing, profitability, speed to market, quality, and global reach. But licensing, franchising, supplier, or distributor agreements can be complex. Non-compliance with their provisions can directly impact your bottom line. Over the life of an agreement, revenue leakage can amount to hundreds of thousands—or even millions—in lost income.

That’s why we help clients with contract compliance: checking whether business partners are honouring their agreements and identifying opportunities to recover revenue or cut costs. Often, clients invoke audit clauses in their contracts to bring us in to review partners’ data and records.

Our work helps companies get the best value from their agreements. For licensing and revenue-sharing arrangements, that can mean revenue recovery. For other contracts—sales and distribution, supply, outsourcing, and joint ventures—it can mean cost recovery.

We combine local knowledge, language, and cultural insight to help companies optimise revenue, protect intellectual property, and manage risk.

Intelligence Centre

Business leaders rely on information and intelligence for critical decisions—whether evaluating suppliers, identifying new markets, reshaping strategy, making acquisitions, hiring key personnel, pursuing new business, or responding to crises with forensic insight.

When leaders are informed by relevant, up-to-date, and reliable intelligence, they make better decisions.

Our Intelligence Centre is the engine that integrates vast streams of complex data, analyses the results, and delivers finely tuned intelligence that companies worldwide depend on to achieve the best outcomes. It has helped global clients vet third parties, evaluate deals, identify conflicts of interest, and provide forensic support when needed.

PwC’s Intelligence Centre comprises more than 400 professionals across the globe, speaking over 40 languages. Our team brings diverse expertise—from finance and engineering to military, law enforcement, journalism, and international relations.

We also invest in cutting-edge technology and databases, including consumer sentiment analysis, market intelligence, sanction lists, and financial crime data.

Partnering with us gives you access to a global network of resources and industry-leading intelligence—helping you sharpen your competitive edge.