E-PAYMENT portal company MyEG Services Bhd has denied knowing the company named in corruption charges against former deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

MyEG in a filing with Bursa Malaysia said it “had no knowledge” of Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services which allegedly paid Zahid kickbacks amounting to RM13.25 million to secure projects under the payment portent for government services.

“The company and the board would like to clarify that both the company and the board have no knowledge of the firm Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services named in the charges and its board of directors,” it said.

MyEG added that it had also never paid any fee, nor was it party to any payment in order to become a service provided for the government.

Zahid who was also former home minister, was today charged with eight counts of corruption, three of which involve receiving cheques as gratification from Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services.

The gratification was allegedly received in 24 cheques between July 15, 2016 and February 8, 2017.

MyEG emphasised in its statement that the charges were against Zahid personally, who is now Umno president, and not the company.

Another company named in other corruption charges against Zahid also issued a statement to deny ever having made payment to him.

Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd in a statement to Bursa said it had won a five-year contract to supply passport polycarbonate datapages and printing system on a per passport basis through open tender in April 2012.

Two of the charges said Zahid received gratification in April 2017 amounting to RM6 million from Chew Ben Ben, a director of Data Sonic Bhd (as written in the charge sheet), as reward for appointing the company to carry out the insertion of 12.5 million biodata passport chips for five years.

Datasonic Technologies today said the chips it supplied to the government was at a lower price than the previous vendor which resulted in savings for the government.

Share prices for MyEG and Datasonic Group plunged this morning following news that the companies were implicated in Zahid’s corruption charges. – October 19, 2018.