Zahid-linked company conspired in Nepali workers' scam, says report

Updated 5 years ago · Published on 22 Jul 2018 4:01PM · 7 Comments

A company linked to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is reportedly involved in a scheme to pocket RM185 million from 600,000 Nepali workers applying for work in Malaysia. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, July 22, 2018.

A COMPANY linked to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is among several private Malaysian companies named in an elaborate scam which allegedly took in more than Rs5 billion (RM185 million) from Nepali workers over the last five years, the Nepali Times reports.

The Nepali news site in its report “Kleptocrats of Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur”, named Bestinet Sdn Bhd together with a few other companies backed by powerful Malaysian politicians as profiteers of Putrajaya’s revised foreign worker application process.

Besides Bestinet, which is allegedly run by Zahid’s brother-in-law Amin Abdul Nor, the report also named Kathmandu-based affiliate, Malaysia VLN Nepal and One Stop Centre (OSC), as among the companies involved in the migrant worker registration scam.

The report claimed that Zahid’s brother, Abdul Hakim Hamidi, and former home minister Azmi Khalid owned shares in the company.

Zahid, who was deputy prime minister, also held the home ministry portfolio before the fall of Barisan Nasional in the last general election.

“It all started five years ago when Malaysia’s home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi outsourced the registration process to a private company (Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd) which required Nepali migrant workers to apply for work visas through a Kathmandu-based affiliate, Malaysia VLN Nepal.

“The agency charged Rs3,200 (RM118) from every Malaysia-bound Nepali worker, and collected Rs1.95 billion from more than 600,000 workers between September 2013 and April 2018,” it said.

It claimed that Bestinet had partnered with Nepal Health Professional Federation (NHPF) to carry out biometric screening that charges Rs4,500 (RM167) from each migrant worker after Putrajaya made it compulsory for all Nepali migrants to undergo a biometric test in July 2015.

The report said the previous practice of applying visas independently cost a fraction of what workers had to pay to go through private companies for visa processing and biometric screening.

It said that all of the revised arrangements were put into place on an ad-hoc basis, without transparency and in the absence of any bilateral agreements between the governments of Nepal and Malaysia. 

The newspaper said Nepal’s Labour Minister Gokarna Bista is reportedly cracking down on several Kathmandu-based companies set up to extort fees from overseas contract workers

Bestinet recently denied any involvement in Bangladeshi worker smuggling syndicate, saying it was not a recruitment agency nor was it involved in the operation of the foreign worker recruitment process in Malaysia or labour source countries. – July 22, 2018.

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Comments

  • Thanks God, one by one is coming out as another kleptocrate charged by the Nepalese as " the Kleptocrats of Kathmandu and Kuala Lumpur".....where to hide our face?

    Posted 5 years ago by Azis Yusoff · Reply

  • The former govt is so deep shit in corruption even the IGP cannot be trusted. Is deep man! Need to chop it all once and for all and start on clean slate. Tun standing in for Muhiddyin needs to work fast and cut off the cancerous cell in our police force.

    Posted 5 years ago by Ryan Li · Reply

  • Before you know it, Zahid probably, like his predecessors, claim ignorance.

    Posted 5 years ago by Debbie Ong · Reply

  • Of all ministries, home minister seem too relax, not much action in place. In fact, few past actions were results of public complaints! ???

    Posted 5 years ago by KS Pang · Reply

  • Haul him up and no mercy. All these scum bags are preying on the Rakyat and have bled the country completely dried. Hang them high in a row publicly togather with their leader.

    Posted 5 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • This is how they enrich themselves and used these fund to buy loyalty, cut off all these easy monies flows once and for all even under suspicious as by now they would have transferred and changed director's names. Don't forget also people like Nazri Aziz, Rahman Dahlan, Salleh Keruak, Ahmad Maslan, Azeez Mamak, Shahrizat the cow woman and all who has made millions out of public funds

    Posted 5 years ago by Teruna Kelana · Reply

  • UMNO's play book Rule#1 says "deny everything". Rule #2 "find someone to blame". Rule #3 "try throwing lots of money at it". Rule #4 "if all of the above fails, make a run for it".

    Posted 5 years ago by Roger 5201 · Reply