KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has recorded the statement of a former finance minister in its ongoing probe into contracts awarded to fleet management company Spanco Sdn Bhd in the late 1990s.
MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki confirmed that the former finance minister was holding office between 2020 and 2021.
However, he said, the MACC had not called up the former prime minister who held office during the same period.
“We will call anybody who is involved in awarding the project. So far, the former finance minister has been called, but we haven’t called up the former prime minister yet.
“I leave it to the investigating officer to see if there is any need to summon the former prime minister for a statement,” he told reporters when met after the Certified Integrity Officer convocation at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur, here, today.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the government’s agreement with Spanco was harming the nation – a stance he said he had stood by since his stint as finance minister in the 1990s.
“I don’t know what is wrong (about Spanco), but I know that it’s not right. I know that it is detrimental to the nation, and I know civil servants are not happy with it,” he said.
Previously, Berjaya Group founder Tan Sri Vincent Tan had sued Spanco and the Malaysian government, then led by former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, for terminating its letter of intent (LoI) for a vehicle-fleet concession and awarding it to another company.
The LoI, which was offered to Berjaya Group and Naza Group under the then-Pakatan Harapan federal government, was cancelled in 2020 after Perikatan Nasional (PN) took over Putrajaya under Muhyiddin’s leadership.
The PN government had then awarded the contract to Spanco, which has held the concession since 1994, and paid it RM700 million more than the Berjaya-Naza contract, according to claims made by Tan last year.
Last month, Scoop reported that the MACC had mounted a raid on the residence of a businessman holding a “Tan Sri” title as part of its investigations into alleged graft related to the procurement and management of the government’s vehicle fleet.
Sources told Scoop that the operation was a continuation of the graft busters’ ongoing investigation, which started in July 2023.
On January 31, it was reported that several personal bank accounts holding tens of millions of ringgit belonging to the businessman were frozen by the MACC as a result of its investigations into the same matter.
Sources also said the businessman was a proxy for a tycoon who was now also being investigated by the MACC regarding allegations of corruption and money laundering based on information from the Pandora Papers. – February 22, 2024