(June 23): The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will haul up Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) to explain its overpriced purchase of an apartment block in Melbourne, Australia, its chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said.

The management of the government agency would be summoned as soon as possible to face the bipartisan parliamentary committee, he told The Malaysian Insider today.

"We will call them up as soon as possible, we will write to Mara," Nur Jazlan said, when asked about a report by Australian daily, The Age, which reported that "top" Mara officers including a former politician had allegedly spent millions buying an apartment block in Melbourne in a property scam.

Mara is a trust for Bumiputera advancement in education, business and other fields.

The report said “a group of super-rich Malaysian officials” overpaid by A$4.75 million (RM13.8 million) for the property in 2013.

The trio had allegedly “overbid” for the building, called Dudley International House, from A$17.8 million to A$22.5 million (RM65.3 million), with the difference pocketed as bribes back home.

The report said the five-storey Dudley International House is used as a student hostel in the suburb of East Caulfield and accommodates up to 115 Mara students attending Monash University.

Mara chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa, meanwhile, said earlier today he would issue an official statement tomorrow after referring the matter to Mara Inc, the subsidiary of the agency which carries out investments and commercial activities on behalf of the trust. – The Malaysian Insider