M’sia worse off now: Ex-MACC exec
Published on: Saturday, January 08, 2022
By: Malaysian Insight
.jpg "M’sia worse off now: Ex-MACC exec")
Kuala Lumpur: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Advisory Board does not have the authority to investigate the conduct of its officers or personnel, said former board chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim (pic).He said there are matters beyond the board’s purview, as laid out in the MACC Act 2009.
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“These panels have no power to investigate the conduct of officers. The Prime Minister must set up a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into MACC’s national state, extent of corruption and effectiveness as presently constituted and organised.
“In other words, there is a need for a thorough review of the (agency’s) present structure,“ he told The Malaysian Insight.
MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki allegedly owned 2.15 million shares in Excel Force MSC Bhd in 2015, as well as 1.93 million shares in Gets Global Bhd the same year and 1.02 million shares the following year.
The advisory panel has cleared him of any wrongdoing.
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Azam told the media that he allowed his brother to use his trading account to purchase shares from the two companies.
On a separate matter, Tunku Aziz said Malaysia is worse off now than it was 20 years ago when he started the fight against corruption.
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“I started a campaign against corruption 20 years ago, and it has gotten worse 20 years on. I am concerned with what is happening to a country once looked up to, where we talked about corruption in other countries. Malaysia was always up there, but it is at the bottom today,” he added.
The Bar Council agreed that a RCI must be set up immediately to investigate allegations levelled at Azam Baki.
It said the royal commission should be set up “without delay” and tasked to investigate the serious accusations against Azam as the MACC’s Anti-Corruption Advisory Board had failed to do so.
The accusations were a matter of critical public importance, said the Bar Council, the professional body for lawyers.
“Any inaction may lead to distrust by the rakyat towards the authorities. We deserve leadership that can truly demonstrate its commitment to stamp out the scourge of corruption,” it said.
“The ACAB’s decision to conduct its own investigation, despite it being only an advisory body, shows that there is a desperate need to revamp the commission’s oversight mechanism,” it added.
Allegations about Azam’s extensive ownership of corporate stock surfaced in mid-December, prompting economist Edmund Terence Gomez to resign as a member of a MACC panel for its failure to discuss reports implicating top leaders at the anti-graft agency.
On Wednesday, Azam told the media that he had willingly allowed his younger brother to use his trading account. At the same press conference, ACAB said it accepted Azam’s explanation and cleared him of any wrongdoing over his purchase and ownership of shares in 2015.
Meanwhile, the involvement of the Advisory Board (ACAB) was not to clear Azam Baki of any wrong-doings.
ACAB Chairman Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang said the purpose of the panel calling Azam on Nov 24 was to seek clarification on the allegation which was spread on social media because it raised a negative view of the MACC.
“I agree that ACAB has no authority to clear Tan Sri Azam’s name. We are only asking him to provide an explanation of all the allegations regarding the shares, that were raised. We want to know the real facts and circumstances and not to clear his name,” he told Berita Harian.
Abu Zahar stressed that the ACAB, which is one of the MACC’s five independent monitoring bodies, would not protect any officer of the commission involved in committing offences.
“ACAB has stressed that we will not compromise or protect anyone among MACC officers who commit legal offences, especially corruption and abuse of power,” he said.
Abu Zahar in a special press conference on Wednesday stated that ACAB found that there was no criminal conduct or conflict of interest involving Azam in the share transaction in 2015.
He had said Azam had clarified to ACAB on Nov 24, that his shares account was used by his brother, Nasir Baki, to buy shares in 2015.
Abu Zahar said the purchase of the shares was made on the open stock market and there was no conflict of interest for the purchase of the shares in 2015, and the shares were also transferred to Nasir the same year.
He said, after a lengthy discussion, ACAB members were of the opinion that Azam had no pecuniary or beneficial interest in the shares.
“Therefore, ACAB is satisfied with the explanation given and found that there was no criminal conduct or ‘conflict of interest’ in the matter,” he said.
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