A contractor who had second thoughts about greasing the palms of 'Home Ministry officers' to get his quota of foreign workers approved, led to the discovery of a syndicate specialising in forging work permits.
The contractor chose instead, to alert the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) of the 'inside job', telling them he had about another half of the RM70,000 illicit payment to make to the two 'officers' that he had been dealing with.
The commission's investigators, who launched an investigation into the case, subsequently arrested two men.
Sources told the New Straits Times that the arrest of the two individuals, led to the discovery of a third suspect, now on the run.
The investigators raided the house of the third suspect, where they discovered, among others, equipment used to forge work permits for foreign workers.
MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Datuk Seri Azam Baki, confirmed the case and the arrest of the two men, adding that the commission was still hunting for the third suspect.
He made it clear that the three suspects were in fact, not officers of the Home Ministry.
Azam said the MACC had, in recent months, been informed of suspected involvement of several 'Home Ministry officers' in brokering the approval of quotas for foreign workers.
''MACC will also look into the possibility of insiders' involvement as part of its efforts to clean up any abuse of power and corruption in public offices, among others.
''At the same time, the commission hopes it will get the support from all parties as banking on MACC alone to fight this, will not cut it,'' he said.
The two suspects, aged 21 and 54, were picked up yesterday, and are expected to be remanded at the Putrajaya magistrate's court this morning.
The men, a quality assurance engineer and a public relations officer respectively, were arrested at the Awan Besar R&R as they were getting ready to collect the balance of the RM25,000 from the contractor. The contractor had earlier paid them RM35,000.
A special team from the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya executed the arrest warrants.