Senior navy officer allegedly forced contractors to use his hotels

Up to six firms are believed to have been ordered to rent hotel rooms to house external workers involved in naval projects, says MACC.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has seized two hotels, valued at about RM2 million, allegedly owned by a senior naval officer.

PETALING JAYA:

 A senior navy officer facing a corruption investigation is said to have forced contractors involved in navy projects to use two hotels owned by him, says Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission chief commissioner Azam Baki.

Preliminary investigations found that up to six contracting firms were ordered to rent the hotel rooms to house workers involved in the projects, Azam said.

“The navy contracts required the use of external workers, who needed places to stay. In this case, they were forced to pay and stay at the hotels owned by the officer,” Azam said, according to Utusan Malaysia.

MACC has frozen 21 bank accounts involving about RM700,000 in its probe into alleged corruption involving the senior navy officer and the appointment of crony companies.

The commission has also seized the two hotels owned by the officer, which are valued at about RM2 million.

The officer is suspected of recommending and appointing a crony company to obtain contracts at his workplace from 2017 to 2020, with suspicious deposits totalling RM2 million reportedly entering his personal accounts and two accounts owned by the hotels.

The investigation is among several that MACC had launched into the armed forces.

So far, four former and current top officials have been charged in court, namely former armed forces chief Nizam Jaffar, ex-army chief Hafizuddeain Jantan, former Malaysian Defence Intelligence Organisation director-general Razali Alias, and Fauzi Kamis, the chief of staff at the armed forces joint forces headquarters. - FMT