THE Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has failed its duty to investigate all those alleged to have received funds from a company involved in the corruption trial of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, senior lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla said. 

Haniff questioned why the anti-graft agency is only now probing those named by a witness from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB) during testimony in court last week. 

For this failure, MACC should conduct an internal investigation to find out why a full probe was not carried out earlier, given that the evidence would have been in their possession since investigations into Zahid began in 2018.

“Will MACC investigate itself over why the contents of the spreadsheet had not been investigated in relation to the names of other political leaders who received money from UKSB?” Haniff said in a Facebook post. 

David Tan, former administrative manager at UKSB, revealed during Zahid’s trial the names of several high-profile people listed in a ledger of those receiving funds from UKSB. 

The company had given money to Zahid, who was home minister when the government appointed the company in 2016 to run a foreign visa system, or VLN, for Chinese nationals. Zahid is facing 33 charges of receiving bribes amounting to S$13.56 million (RM42 million) from UKSB as an inducement for himself as then home minister to extend the company’s contract to handle the VLN.

Following Tan’s revelation of names, which include former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, MACC last night said it is launching investigations into “several people named” in Zahid’s trial as having received funds.

Haniff said today that Tan, as key witness in Zahid’s trial, would likely have given the names to MACC when the probe first began into Zahid in 2018. 

“Didn’t the prosecutor himself display the UKSB ledger (which is said to contain the names of other leaders who received money from UKSB) during key questioning of Tan?

“So, doesn’t this mean that the UKSB ledger is one of the case items that had been obtained by the MACC during the initial investigation of this case?

“So the issue is, why didn’t MACC begin a thorough investigation at that time on all the others named in the UKSB ledger?” Haniff said.

Haniff also asked why the names were only revealed during questioning of the witness in court and not prior to it.

Tan, the 17th witness in Zahid’s trial, told the court last week that his laptop with the spreadsheet files containing the list of payments as well as USB pen drives where he kept copies, were seized by MACC in October 2018. 

Besides the earlier names mentioned, other names also on the ledger were former foreign minister Anifah Aman, current housing and local government minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican, and Parti Warisan Sabah president Mohd Shafie Apdal. 

Regarding Muhyiddin, Tan testified that UKSB gave RM1.3 million to him in 2018, when the latter succeeded Zahid as home minister. 

Muhyiddin has denied receiving money from UKSB, claiming that the dates of the fund transfers given by Tan were at times when he was undergoing cancer treatment.

Muhyiddin said he had never been questioned by the authorities about funds from UKSB and would cooperate with any investigation. – June 19, 2022.