Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) must discard its past shameful history of “arrest now, release later” to convince Malaysians that it is committed to netting small or big fry that are corrupt
___________________
Press Statement
by Lim Guan Eng
________________________
(Petaling Jaya,
Thursday):
ACA must discard its past
shameful history of “arrest
now, release later”, to
convince Malaysians that it
is committed to hunting
‘small or big fries’ that are
corrupt. Amongst some of the
big corruption cases, the ACA
withdrew charges even before
it could be heard in court
were against former UMNO
Youth President and Melaka
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul
Rahim Tamby Chik or
mishandling of corruption
investigations against
Minister of International
Trade and Industry Datuk Seri
Rafidah Aziz.
ACA also failed to act
against the extraordinary
wealth accumulated through
corrupt means by UMNO Port
Klang assemblyman Datuk
Zakaria Md Deros or by former
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk
Osu Sukam who gambled and
lost tens of millions of
ringgit in the casinos of
London. Worse, ACA failed to
act against UMNO leaders who
were suspended from their
posts for being involved in
money politics during
campaigning in the party
elections.
ACA Director-General Datuk
Ahmad Said Hamdan had urged
the people not to be
skeptical about ACA’s efforts
as it does not discriminate
when hunting down those small
or big fry involved in
corruption regardless of
their status. How can the
people not be skeptical when
his predecessor Datuk Seri
Zulkipli Mat Noor’s became
the first Anti-Corruption
Agency (ACA) director-general
to be accused by the former
Sabah ACA Director of being
involved in corrupt
activities?
So serious was the failure
of ACA to take action against
corruption that ACA was
described as a moral failure
that served to cover up
rather than expose corruption
– Badan Penutup Rasuah
instead of Badan Pencegah
Rasuah. Even the United
States financial house Morgan
Stanley estimated that
Malaysia lost a shocking
US$100 billion from
corruption over the last 20
years
DAP has no confidence in the
ACA taking action on big fry
or small fry on the misuse or
mismanagement of public funds
outlined in the
Auditor-General 2006 report
when it has not questioned
the Ministers involved on
their failure to check the
alarming decline in standards
of public accountability,
transparency and integrity in
government departments.
So long as no action is taken
against Ministers and top
officials, there is nothing
new in talk of action by ACA
on the sad cases of abuse of
public trust and cheating the
public ranges from the small
such as the National Youth
Skills Institute (NYSI)
buying 2 units of two-tonne
car jack for RM 5,471 per
unit when the market price is
only RM 50 per unit. Why is
there no action on the larger
scandals such as the huge
expected loss of RM 6.75
billion in the Defense
Ministry following the
purchase of 6 off-shore naval
patrol vessels (OPVs) that
were either delivered but not
operational (2) or still not
delivered (4)?
According to the
Auditor-General’s report,
equipment for the NYSI was
purchased without open tender
and had exceeded the original
estimate by RM 385 million to
RM 785 million from RM 400
million. The Auditor-General
had said that the original
price for purchasing the
equipment was set at RM 400
million before it finally
ballooned to RM 785 million.
Where did this extra RM 385
million go?
Amongst the excesses was
the purchase of 2 units of
two-tonne car jack bought for
RM 5,471 per unit when the
market price is only RM 50
per unit, allowing the
contractors to mark up
contract prices up to 100
times the market price.
Equally unacceptable is the
official explanation by
Treasury to the
Auditor-General on this
scandal which appears to try
to cover up rather than seek
the truth
For instance Treasury claimed
the purchase of 90 sets of
Faber Castell technical pens
at RM 1, 146.56 per set when
the market price is RM 160;
each set also included a set
of spare nibs and other
accessories. This is wrong as
the original purchase order
did not include such
accessories. Further such
explanations are ridiculous
as it would mean that the
accessories are more
expensive than the original
item, as much as almost 10
times the price of the
original technical pens or
100 times the 2-tonne jack.
Is this another case of
“Malaysia Boleh” where the
accessories are more
expensive than the main
parent item?
With such blatant abuses,
action taken by ACA so far is
only arresting junior
government civil servants who
are small fry. DAP finds it
hard to believe that “small
fries” in the Youth and
Sports Ministry in 2002 have
the authority and power to
purchase equipment without
open tender and exceeded the
original estimate by RM 385
million to RM 785 million
from the original RM 400
million. The extra RM 385
million could not have been
approved by small fries but
only by big fries. Action
taken against small fries
would be meaningless if no
action is taken against big
fries and confirm the ACA’s
past history of shameful
double-standards and policy
of “arrest now, release
later”.
(25/10/2007)
* Lim Guan
Eng,
Secretary-General of DAP |