Several Iskandar Investment bhd officers, runners and contractors may be charged
PUTRAJAYA: THE intensifying scrutiny on alleged corruption at Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB) has uncovered foreign links in inflating costs of projects.
Sources said Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission officials were tracking several foreigners, including from India and the Middle East, who had allegedly worked handin- glove with IIB officials, including serving executives, for hefty kickbacks for projects they brought in.
The New Straits Times has learnt that the commissions could run up to 30 per cent of the value of projects. They are runners who had established a rapport with several IIB subsidiary companies.
Sources said the runners had contracts, drawn up with the companies, to secure their commissions.
MACC sees this as an excuse to “legalise corruption”.
“These runners, engaged to source for foreign investors, are pillaging large sums of money which is also why some projects have seen inflated costs.
“We have reason to believe that there were illicit ‘under-table’ give-and-take here and there for this to have happened.
“The MACC has also uncovered manipulations by these runners where government projects were involved.” MACC sees this as strong leads in pursuing these runners based on documents already in its custody and had set up a special team to track them down.
Khazanah Nasional Bhd had lastyearinitiatedanaudittolook into the financial management and operations of IIB following reports of alleged kickbacks, inflated costs and questionable procurement procedures.
It was reported that some of these allegations included the awarding of infrastructure projects to relatives of senior executives of IIB.
Sources told the NST that there would be a series of charges to be brought next week in relation to the MACC probe on IIB.
To date, two individuals have been charged in connection with the IIB corruption scandal.
The first was the husband of a former IIB top official, Mohd Amin Suhaimi, 52, who was charged with corruption on Tuesday for allegedly soliciting RM1.6 million as inducement to obtain a project.
Yesterday, a 51-year-old ex-senior vicepresident of an IIB subsidiary pleaded guilty to a corruption charge, where he was fined RM20,000, in default two months’ jail (see page 8).
In the on-going investigations into the major crackdown on corruption in the government agency tasked with spearheading development in the southern region of Johor, it is learnt that MACC has opened investigation papers on more individuals.
They include a former official who held a top post in IIB, a “Datuk” businessman and several serving IIB officials.
The NST also learnt that an assemblyman had been called in to facilitate investigations.
“MACC is expected to recommend charges against a wide range of individuals, from IIB officers to runners and contractors.” Sources said the seriousness and magnitude of the IIB case, including the scores of impending arrests, had seen the MACC headquarters taking over the case from its Johor office.
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