The deputy finance minister, a businessman behind the aborted “crooked bridge” between Johor and Singapore, and the private secretaries to the prime minister and deputy prime minister have been linked by an anonymous blog which said monthly payments has been made to the two aides.
The anti-corruption commission MACC has confirmed an investigation of Awang Adek Husin, the deputy finance minister, and Yahya Abd Jalil, the Johor businessman whose company Gerbang Perdana Sdn Bhd won the contract to build the so-called “crooked bridge” to replace the Johor Causeway.
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has been a champion of the “crooked bridge”. The project was cancelled by the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi government, but Mahathir has been pushing to revive the project. Others in favour have included the Sultan of Johor. Earlier this month Johor Baru Umno made another call for its revival.» Analysis of Mahathir’s crooked bridge
As part of preparations for the bridge, a new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex (now called the Sultan Iskandar Building) was constructed by Gerbang Perdana. Maintenance works for the complex are handled by another of Yahya’s companies, linked in the blog to the payments made to the aides.
Monthly payments totalling RM170,000 and RM160,000 were made to Mohd Po’ad Jelani, private secretary to the prime minister, and Mohd Shukor Abd Manan, senior private secretary to the deputy prime minister.
The anonymous Whistleblower 711 blog hinted that the payments were in connection to a project that had been cancelled and was now being revived.
The blog also alleged that monthly payments of RM10,000 had been made to Awang Adek since January this year and said “each time a cheque or cheques was cashed out, a partial amount or all of it was deposited to Dato’ Mohd Shukor Abd Manan own personal account and few others”.
In its statement to Free Malaysia Today, the MACC said that it was aware of the contents of the blog and was investigating the allegations against Awang Adek. No mention was made of Mohd Po’ad or Mohd Shukor. » ‘Corrupt’ deputy minister under probe (Free Malaysia Today).
Yahya was named in the blog as the man behind Advance Maintenance Precision Management Sdn Bhd, which has the maintenance contract for two federal government buildings in Johor Baru, Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (the Customs, Immigration & Quarantine Building) and Johor Bahru Sentral. » Why no open tender for the RM250 million CIQ flyover?
Both buildings were constructed by Yahya’s other company, Gerbang Perdana Sdn Bhd, the contractor for the “crooked bridge” to replace the Johor Causeway. After the cancellation of the “crooked bridge”, Gerbang Perdara received a RM470 million highway project and became embroiled in controversy when its claim for compensation ballooned to RM360 million.» Inflated bill for aborted bridge has Samy Vellu fuming
This lead to a spat between the works minister S Samy Vellu and the parliamentary accounts committee, chaired by Shahrir Samad, the MP for Johor Baru when Samy Vellu refused to appear before the committee and also barred the director-general of public works from attending. » Samy Vellu’s unseemly row with PAC
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