GEORGE TOWN: Two teams of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers arrived at Level 52 of Komtar here, this morning.
The first team of four people arrived at 9.40am, while the second team arrived about 25 minutes later.
Level 52 houses the offices of Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Ahmad Zakiyuddin Abd Rahman; Deputy Chief Minister II Professor Dr P. Ramasamy; state Public Works, Utilities and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari; and state Tourism, Culture, Arts and Heritage Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin.
The officers are expected to question several of the state executive councillors over the RM6.3 billion Penang Undersea Tunnel project.
Ramasamy arrived at his office at about 9.15am and left shortly after to chair a meeting.
Zairil also left his office at about 9am to chair a separate meeting.
Yeoh was in his office.
Yesterday, Ramasamy told newsmen that he will extend his fullest cooperation to the investigators.
"Prior to this, I was summoned by the MACC to give my statement to assist its probe into the Penang Undersea Tunnel project in 2018. It did not go further than that.
"Now, the new government wants to revisit the matter," he was quoted as saying.
On Wednesday, the New Straits Times reported that the MACC had re-launched a probe into the Penang Undersea Tunnel project following new evidence which it received on the matter.
Sources close to the investigation told NST that more witnesses from the Penang government will be called in to assist in the probe.
Former Penang Port Commission chairman Jeffrey Chew was the first to be arrested on Tuesday. He is currently undergoing a four-day remand.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said that the state government will extend its full cooperation to the MACC on the probe.
He had said that the MACC had notified the state government of its intention to interview several state leaders.
The MACC's probe, said Chow, applies only to those who had held office in the previous term.
The project had courted controversy in the past, especially over its RM305 million feasibility studies, as well as the nearly two-year delay in its completion.
The ambitious project consists of four components, including three road projects measuring 30km and an undersea tunnel, costing an estimated RM6.3 billion in total.
Last March, blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin had named several Penang DAP leaders and state government officials who he alleged were involved in corrupt practices involving the project.
He claimed he was given a 200-page document by an individual at the MACC, and that he would produce extracts of its contents in several installments online to expose the matter.
The MACC had in turn lodged a police report over claims made by Raja Petra in relation to the project.
In April last year, a businessman who was implicated in a scandal related to the tunnel project was slapped with 68 money-laundering charges involving RM11.4 million.