THE Penang Chief Minister’s Office said it didn’t ‘refuse’ the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) Corruption-Free Pledge (IBR) because it was never asked to sign it.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s political secretary Wong Hon Wai said it was unfair for the anti-graft body to have made such a claim.

“MACC never wrote to the chief minister about the IBR. How is the state to decide to sign the pledge or not when it never received any letters from MACC?”

“It is unfair for MACC to attack Penang like a politician when it did not even write to the chief minister. The attack is baseless and biased towards Barisan Nasional because it used reports by Penang BN leaders and non-governmental organisations that are pro-BN,” said Wong.

MACC chief commissioner Datuk Dzulkifli Ahmad last Monday said that the three opposition-led states, including Selangor and Kelantan, had yet to sign the IBR and he expressed disappointment with Penang’s refusal to do so, calling it a missed opportunity to show that it took corruption and power abuse seriously.

Wong, who is also Air Itam assemblyman, said Lim spoke to Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Paul Low once about the integrity pledge but the talk came to nothing.

“The meeting came to nothing because Low would not include a condition to compel all holding government positions to declare their personal assets in the pledge,” he said. – July 17, 2017.