PETALING JAYA: The Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) has called on the Public Accounts Committee to probe the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for its inaction in investigating those who allegedly received kickbacks from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB).
C4 also asked MACC to issue a public statement on its failure to launch investigations into other politicians linked to UKSB despite having access to contents of a company ledger.
“MACC should be investigated for this seemingly selective action,” it said in a statement.
It claimed that the lack of laws on political financing had led to the public becoming oblivious to how political donations could be politically linked, adding that this blurred the lines between political donations and bribes.
“While they may be a legitimate source of political financing, without proper regulations and oversight, they not only open the door to the possibility of massive corruption between powerful politicians and companies seeking influence, but they also destroy public trust in the political system,” it said.
David Tan, a key witness in former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption trial, told the court last week his laptop containing the list of payments as well as USB pen drives on which he kept copies were seized by MACC in October 2018.
According to testimony by the former UKSB administrative manager, former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, former Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal, former foreign minister Anifah Aman, and housing and local government minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican were among those who had received funds from UKSB.
Also last week, former UKSB director Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani told the court his company had given money to Khairy Jamaluddin’s Rembau Umno division, but not directly or personally to Khairy, who was then youth and sports minister.
Zahid, 69, is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from UKSB as an inducement for himself in his capacity as a civil servant and the then home minister to extend the contract of the company as the operator of the One-Stop Centre (OSC) in China and the foreign visa (VLN) system, as well as to maintain the agreement to supply VLN integrated system paraphernalia to the company by the ministry.
On another seven counts, he is charged as the home minister to have obtained for himself S$1,150,000, RM3 million, 15,000 Swiss francs and US$15,000 in cash from the same company in connection with his official work. - FMT
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