MARA Corp executive director Suhaili Abdul Rahman denied allegations he abused his power to pay for a hotel bill when he was the Labuan Bersatu chief in Malacca for the state polls last year.

Suhaili, who is also a Bersatu supreme council member, admitted he had used the Mara Corp company credit card to pay for six rooms on November 20, the day Malacca held its state elections.

“Yes I used the credit card to pay for the hotel bills in Malacca. What is wrong with that?

“I am a full-time Mara Corp executive director. I have the authority to use the credit card. It is not a crime as I did not cheat or scam anyone,” Suhaili told The Malaysian Insight.

Suhaili said he has no problems having his salary deducted by Mara Corp if the Majlis Amanah Rakyat’s (Mara) investment holding company wished to do so.

“They can deduct it from my salary, I do not have any problems with that. The issue now is I did not breach any law. It is stated in my oath when I became the executive director.

“Why are certain people in Mara Corp making a big deal out of this?” Suhaili asked.

Earlier this week, a source from Mara Corp provided The Malaysian Insight with a hotel invoice alleging Suhaili paid for six rooms on polling day.

Suhaili had stayed for a night at the Hatten Hotel using the same credit card owned by Mara Corp, which was used to pay for the Ramadan dinner back in April the same year.

Checks showed that both payments were made using the same card, based on its four last numbers.

Five of the hotel rooms were worth RM431 per night and another room was priced at RM831 per night. The invoice was issued the next day on November 21.

Previously, The Malaysian Insight reported that Suhaili allegedly paid more than RM5,000 for the Ramadan dinner.

Speaking to Utusan Malaysia on Tuesday, Suhaili refuted allegations he had misused his power to pay for the dinner.

He told the Malay language daily the payment was made in his capacity as Mara Corp executive director for the purpose of celebrating orphans and religious school students.

He denied paying for political purposes on behalf of Bersatu.

However, the payment for hotel rooms in Malacca contradicted his own admission to Utusan Malaysia, where he had paid the hotel bills using Mara Corp’s credit card.

Where was the red flag?

He accused some factions in Mara Corp of trying to “make him look bad”.

“I have used the credit card to pay for a Ramadan dinner back in April, which I am sure you are aware of,” he said.

“Why wait until 2022 to accuse me of committing an offence? Why didn’t the Mara Corp finance department report me back then if I had broken the law?”

On Monday, The Malaysian Insight reported that one of five individuals accused of misconduct and abuse of power in Mara Corp had lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over Suhaili’s alleged abuse of a corporate credit card.

The report followed a police report lodged by the five against Suhaili for initiating investigations against them.

“The MACC report was made with regard to the misuse of a credit card owned by Mara,” the source said without elaborating.

Prior to the MACC report, the five men – Noor Irwan Marmin, Iskandar Zainudin, Rizal Abdul Gani, Mohd Faizal Mohd Top and Mohd Firdaus Zubir – had lodged a report against a twitter account and Suhaili for accusing them of misconduct.

The twitter account, @edisisiasat had shared documents in which Suhaili had accused them of “not following proper procedures when making backdated claims and allowances”.

All five denied they had violated any regulations in seeking the backdated claims while Iskandar in a separate police report claimed Suhaili was trying to divert the real attention of alleged misconduct in Mara to others.

On Thursday, it was reported that MACC will call in the five Mara Corp officers for questioning, following allegations of abuse of power and misconduct.

Sources said the five senior officers are among 17 more individuals who will have their statements recorded in the coming days.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source with knowledge of the matter said all five were questioned for more than 12 hours at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya.

“The questioning ended at 4am yesterday, I was told. It started at 3pm on Friday. They were asked on the backdated claims that amounted to tens of thousands of ringgit.”

The source said MACC investigators also confiscated the mobile phones of the five men. – February 13, 2022.