This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on May 14, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: DRB-Hicom Bhd confirmed yesterday that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had remanded two top executives of its wholly-owned subsidiary, DRB-Hicom Defence Technologies Sdn Bhd (Deftech), concerning a graft probe into a RM17 million defence contract.

“DRB-Hicom wishes to emphasise the group and Deftech shall provide [our] utmost cooperation to the authorities in this matter,” it said in a statement yesterday. The group did not provide other details other than saying it wanted to confirm media reports on the matter.

News portal Malaysiakini reported earlier yesterday that the MACC had remanded a 53-year-old chief executive officer of a company with the title “Datuk” and its 45-year-old chief financial officer on graft allegations.

It wrote that Putrajaya Magistrate Shah Wira Abdul Halim had allowed a four-day remand to facilitate investigations on the two suspects, said to have been arrested last night at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya when they presented themselves for questioning.

Citing sources, it said the suspects allegedly received, between 2014 and 2017, hundreds of thousands of ringgit from several companies concerning the award of the contract to supply equipment for the Deftech AV8 Gempita and ACV-300 Adnan armoured combat vehicles to a defence agency.

The two types of armoured combat vehicles are produced by Deftech in Pekan, in collaboration with Turkish defence company FNSS, it added.

It also quoted MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Azam Baki as confirming the arrest when contacted, and said about RM100,000 in cash was seized as part of the investigations, together with documents related to the project.

DRB-Hicom shares fell nine sen or 4.29% to a one-month low of RM2.01 yesterday, with a market value of RM3.89 billion.