Rahman to look into breach of MACC Act in DAP’s report against him

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan wants to determine whether the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act was breached in light of a report lodged with the commission against him.

This comes after two DAP Youth leaders lodged a report with the MACC over alleged abuse of power by Abdul Rahman and then held a press conference about it.

“I will look into the breach of Section 29(4) of the MACC Act when DAP leaders made (a) press conference about the report,” Abdul Rahman said in a statement today.

Welcoming the report lodged against him, Abdul Rahman gave his commitment that he will give full cooperation to the MACC.

“It is clear this report is politically motivated but nonetheless, I will assure the public that I will give full cooperation to MACC,” he said.

Section 29(4) of the MACC Act states that a report shall be kept in secret and shall not be disclosed to any other person other than to an MACC officer or deputy public prosecutor until the accused has been charged in court.

This is unless the disclosure was made with the consent of the public prosecutor or an officer of the commission of the rank of commissioner and above.

Abdul Rahman, in February last year, had urged the MACC to implement Section 29(4) of the MACC Act “to protect the integrity of those accused”.

The minister was reported by Bernama as saying that the law provides that the nature of the complaint made to the MACC be kept from the media.

Commenting on certain parties which inform the media when they want to lodge a complaint with the MACC, Abdul Rahman had said that revealing the name of the accused and their offences would jeopardise the accused even before he is taken to court.

Meanwhile, the two DAP leaders yesterday had urged the MACC to probe Abdul Rahman for abusing his power when he was the urban wellbeing, local government and housing minister by approving an extension of time (EOT) request by a developer.

They also urged the commission to probe Faridah Begum KA Abdul Kader who had allegedly made the request on behalf of developer BHL Construction Sdn Bhd in 2015, months after her husband Apandi Ali was appointed attorney-general.

Abdul Rahman however denied suggestions that he had abused his power and that he had acted within the law in granting the developer a one year EOT.

The matter came to light after the Kuala Lumpur High Court last week declared that the EOT granted by Abdul Rahman for the two condominium projects to be "invalid".- Mkini