PUTRAJAYA: Over 60% of the 156 investigation papers (IP) involving high-profile and public interest cases opened by the special operations division (BOK) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) between 2020 and June 8 this year involved politicians.
BOK senior director Tan Kang Sai said the investigations resulted in the arrest of a total of 211 individuals, with 91 of them brought to court over a total of 454 charges.
“During the same period, the MACC also confiscated RM51,132,539 in cash, forfeited property and cash worth RM10,465,873.39, and issued compounds amounting to RM128,968,750,” he told Bernama recently.
He said investigating high-profile and public interest cases, especially concerning financial transactions involving banks and foreign financial institutions, had its own challenges.
Tan said tracing the money becomes difficult when funds are transferred to offshore accounts because each country has different laws to protect its banking system and financial institutions have the right not to cooperate or provide information to facilitate an investigation.
“As such, we see that most of the evidence on money trail brought to the court only involves local banks and financial institutions,” he said.
Tan said among the high-profile cases which had been investigated by the division were Op Mitra, Op Hire and Op Marii which involved misuse of funds provided by the government for the development of the Indian community, for workers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the country’s automotive industry.
Another challenge facing the division, he said, was when cases being investigated were sensationalised by the media and politicians.
“This allows parties involved to take the opportunity to destroy important documents such as financial transactions, and to flee.
“Today’s technological advancement also presents its own challenges where financial transactions involving both local and foreign banks and financial institutions can be carried out using only mobile phones.
“In view of the challenges, MACC engages experts in accounting, IT and law as part of the BOK investigation team to ensure a comprehensive investigation before submitting the investigation papers to the attorney-general’s chambers,” he said.
He added that BOK also used Effective Investigation Management (EIM) and Management Team-based Investigation (MTI) to enhance public confidence in MACC’s authority as a relevant and pre-eminent anti-corruption agency.
BOK is a special investigation unit of MACC established to investigate high-profile and public interest cases as well as those affecting the country’s security. - FMT
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