TO
:
All Residents,
All Permanent.Secretaries of Ministries.
All Heads of State and Federal Departments.
SUBJECT : Declaration of Secrecy
OUR REF
: 30/E0/2482
DATE : 31st January, 1978.
This circular is necessary in view of a recent case in which the Head of a certain Department was discovered showing an official confidential correspondence to a person who is not a member of the public service. This may well appear at first sight to be just a breach of security which involves only disciplinary action but Government officers should not forget that a culpable negligence is also an offence under the Official Secrets Act, 1972, which carries a penalty of up to seven years and fine.
2.
All Government officers should be fully aware of their responsibilities
relating to the protection of Government official secrets or documents.
It becomes necessary also to remind officers of their pledge of honour
to observe strict secrecy when they signed the following declaration on
the day of their appointment :-
I, THE UNDERSIGNED,
being a Civil Servant in the employ of the Federal/State Government, do
hereby pledge
myself on my honour to observe a strict secrecy respecting all matters
of a confidential
nature which
may come to my knowledge in the discharge of my official duties.
AND I FURTHER PLEDGE MYSELF, on my honour, not to make use of other than for official purposes or reveal to anyone contrary to my duty any matters which may come to my knowledge in the discharge of my official duties, and also not to supply to anyone any information respecting any such matters, except as and when required so to do by law, or by the regulations of the Service, or by my superior officers, or except as my official duty shall otherwise require".
(a) relates to or is used in a prohibited place or relates to anything in such a place; or
(b) relates to munitions of war; or
(c) has been made or obtained in contravention of this Act; or
(d) has been entrusted in confidence to him by any public officer; or
(e)
he has made or obtained, or to which he has had access, owing to his position
as a
person who holds or has held office in the public service, or as a person
who holds,
or has held a contract made on behalf of the Government, or as a person
who is or
has been employed by or under a person who holds or has held such an office
or
contract, does any of the following :-
(ii)
uses any such information or thing as aforesaid for the benefit of any
foreign country other
than any foreign country for whose benefit he is duly authorised to use
it, or in any other
manner prejudicial to the safety or interests of Malaysia; or
(iii)
retains in his possession or control any such thing as aforesaid when he
has no right to retain
it, or when it is contrary to his duty to retain it, or fails to comply
with all lawful directions
issued by lawful authority with regard to the return or disposal thereof;
or
(iv)
fails to take reasonable care of, or so conducts himself as to endanger
the safety or secrecy
of, any such information or thing, he shall be guilty of an offence punishable
with imprisonment not exceeding
seven years or a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, or both such
imprisonment and fine.
(MD. SANI ADAM)
(HAJI SA'AD HASSAN)
for Federal Secretary,
for State Secretary,
Sarawak
Sarawak