KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 7): DAP lawmaker Tony Pua today questioned the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) and its chief commissioner Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad’s fear in investigating the scandal surrounding 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
“Malaysians have been waiting long for MACC to launch its investigations into 1MDB, especially after similar investigations have already begun in the US, Switzerland and Singapore,” Pua said during a press conference at the Parliament building today.
Pua had asked the Prime Minister earlier in Parliament as to why the MACC had announced in June that it would not be carrying out investigations regarding the misappropriation of funds and abuse of power in the 1MDB scandal.
Following this, Datuk Paul Low, who is a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said in a written response to Pua on Nov 1 that “investigations weren’t carried out because of existing investigations being done by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the police”.
“The PAC — which barely scratched the surface of the 1MDB scandal, has no prosecutorial powers. Bank Negara Malaysia, on the other hand, was investigating 1MDB purely from the Financial Services Act and certainly did not deal with the parties who had profited from the scandal,” Pua said.
“At the same time, while the police may have been investigating the criminal elements in 1MDB, the MACC has power, laws and jurisdictions which are completely different from the police to tackle corruption cases,” he added.
“What type of 'independent commission' worth its salt is MACC, if it leaves investigation, especially a scandal of such scale, to other agencies?”
Pua lamented that multiple reports have been lodged with the MACC regarding the 1MDB scandal, including those filed in December 2014 by then UMNO Batu Kawan division deputy chief Datuk Khairuddin Abu Hassan and more recently, a Pakatan Harapan Youth-linked non-governmental organisation (NGO) in July this year.
The NGO, known as Gerakan Anak Muda Tolak Najib (GANT1), filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, urging the government to reveal and declare as to what accounts were used to pay International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).
“Hence, it is a serious breach of MACC’s duty for failing to look into complaints of corruption. These submitted reports were to be evaluated before the Commission’s Information Evaluation Committee, to determine whether there were elements of corruption or not,” Pua said.
“If elements of corruption are found, it is imperative that an MACC investigation is opened before being referred to the AG (Attorney-General) for legal prosecution,” he added.
He further lambasted MACC for “passing on its investigation to other agencies, when each authority has a different mandate to investigate”.
“Why is the MACC and Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad, after all its showboating, so afraid of investigating the country’s biggest and most blatant corruption scandal?” Pua asked.