Unfortunately, Malaysia seems to be all about dubious money trails leading to the ruling elite and/or their cronies.
The recent one implicates Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
In March 2016, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan announced that the companies mandated by the government for the rehiring of undocumented workers programme were Bukti Megah Sdn Bhd, International Marketing and Net Resources Sdn Bhd (Iman) and MyEG.
The Malaysian Migrant Money trail aired by Aljazeera English two weeks ago says that all three companies are directly linked to UMNO.
Let me focus on Johor-based Bukti Megah Sdn Bhd first. At the time the contract was awarded, the main director of the firm was Abdul Halim Suleiman who is a special officer to the Home Minister, Zahid Hamidi.
Abdul Halim Suleiman was the State Assemblyman for Puteri Wangsa in Johor from 2004 until 2013. He still is an Umno member.
He owned 70% of the company while his son Muhamad Redzuan Halim owned 30%. According to SSM records, Halim was appointed director on 27 March 2014 and his firm can legalise workers from 15 source countries.
This is a clear case of conflict of interest and also abuse of power by Zahid Hamidi.
It raises questions as to whether the Home Minister who has absolute control of the immigration authorities would have used his influence to award the project to his key aide.
Being a deputy premier as well, makes Zahid Hamidi more influential when awarding such contracts. Thus, he needs to clarify if the contract to Bukti Megah Sdn Bhd were awarded on an open-tender basis.
This is crony-capitalism that the government claims to fight against.
Al Jazeera’s reporter has gone on record to say that they made several attempts long before the show was aired to give Zahid Hamidi and his aide the right of reply.
The repeated requests were ignored but interestingly the company registration records, which were updated on July 10 this year, show that Halim and his son were not listed as directors or owners anymore.
This is not just strange but further shows that Zahid Hamidi and Halim have skeletons to hide as previous records show the contract was awarded when Halim was the owner/director of Bukti Megah.
So both men must clarify this issue immediately and also respond to the report by Al Jazeera.
And the anti-corruption agency, MACC, must act without further delay as there are enough discrepancies to start an investigation against Zahid Hamidi and his aide.