THE chief executive officer and another senior official of Zakat Pulau Pinang (ZPP) have been remanded a further four days to assist investigations into alleged corruption involving millions of ringgit.

The duo’s initial remand order of seven days expired today after they were arrested by MACC on May 9.

The duo – aged 50 and 35 – arrived at the Penang Court Complex with MACC officers at about 2.15pm and were brought before Magistrate Mohamad Amin Shahul Hamid for the remand extension.

They were arrested with two other ZPP officers but the rest were released yesterday.

MACC detained a total of 12 people, consisting the four ZPP officials and eight contractors, last week.

It was learned that five contractors were released over the weekend while the remaining three were brought to the Magistrate’s Court to process the end of their remand before their release at the Penang MACC office.

Those released are each on a RM5,000 MACC bond.

Penang MACC director Abdul Aziz Aban last week said preliminary investigation showed that the individuals allegedly misused funds by organising programmes before splitting up the profit.

He also said MACC believed the CEO had allegedly received valuables, money, cheques from contractors and suppliers in return for awarding certain projects to them.

Aziz reportedly said the commission would be hauling up more contractors who had projects with ZPP to assist investigation.

He said MACC might also talk to the ZPP and Penang Islamic Council (MAIPP) management.

Last week, after the arrests of the ZPP officials, Penang religious affairs exco Abdul Malik Abul Kassim assured Muslims that the zakat funds were safe.

Despite the arrests, he said ZPP had never encountered cases of misappropriation.

He said the agency’s books have been audited by independent accountants and auditors annually since 2008. – May 15, 2017.