Political economy professor Edmund Terence Gomez has questioned why the MACC Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (ACAB) kept him out of the loop on their meeting regarding chief commissioner Azam Baki's shareholdings scandal.
"If a meeting was held on Nov 24, why was I not told of this when I discussed this matter with some board members in December?
"Why was I not told that Azam had been exonerated by the board members at this meeting? Was there a Board meeting on Nov 24 as claimed by Abu Zahar?" Gomez (above) asked in a statement today.
Azam is under scrutiny after it emerged that he owned millions in shares and warrants in two publicly listed companies during his tenure as MACC investigations director.
Gomez had emailed ACAB chairperson Abu Zahar Ujang on Nov 10 regarding the case, asking the latter to organise a meeting between the board and the three advisory panels.
The professor, who was on the MACC’s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel at the time, sent follow-up emails on Nov 26 and Dec 14.
He resigned from the panel after getting no responses on the matter.
Abu Zahar claimed to have not received Gomez's emails, blaming a bad intranet at the MACC headquarters.
Regardless, Abu Zahar and the other ACAB members have confirmed that they met to discuss Azam's case on Nov 24.
Abu Zahar later claimed at a press conference on Wednesday that the ACAB meeting had cleared the MACC chief of misconduct.
Gomez in his statement today, asked why the board did this during the meeting.
However, the six other ACAB members in a statement earlier today denied expressing views exonerating Azam, and dismissed Abu Zahar's remarks as his personal opinion.
They also stressed that the board does not have the authority to exonerate Azam.
The statement was signed by all members of the ACAB except for Abu Zahar.
The signatories are Ismail Omar, Azman Ujang, Akhbar Satar, Hamzah Kassim, David Chua Kok Tee and Mohammad Agus Yusoff.
Independent probe
Meanwhile, Gomez also asked why they did not push for an independent probe earlier.
"It is not sufficient for the advisory board members to distance themselves from Abu Zahar’s statements at his press conference.
"The board members must also explain why they did not insist on an independent investigation into these allegations against Azam when this was first brought to their attention," he said.
The board members said that prior to Wednesday's press conference, they had a separate discussion with Abu Zahar urging for Azam's case to be referred to an independent committee, the parliamentary select committee on corruption, or MACC's complaints panel.
It is not clear when this meeting was held.
Azam has denied wrongdoing in the shareholdings scandal, saying that his brother had used his account to buy the shares.
The matter is being investigated by the Securities Commission. - Mkini
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