By P. Gunasegaram
MACC chief Azam Baki must step down immediately because the corporate mafia and manipulation case highlighted by Bloomberg is now being investigated by multiple agencies, and he may own even more shares than disclosed earlier.
Communications minister and government spokesman Fahmi Fadzil said on Mar 11 that enforcement agencies will continue to probe the “corporate manipulation” claims including the police, Inland Revenue Board, the MACC and Securities Commission.
The chief secretary was supposed to investigate only the share transactions that Azam was involved in, the allegations being his holdings exceeded civil service limits. But Fahmi’s announcement shows the Bloomberg allegations are now being investigated too by multiple agencies, changing the complexion of the probe.
This refers to the corporate mafia case reported by Bloomberg titled “Who’s Watching Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Watchdog?” which alleged high level fixing of shareholdings in some companies via a concerted action involving MACC officials, including Azam.
MACC pressure
It alleged that the MACC used pressure to force shareholders of companies to give up their stakes and exit the company at low prices and lose control. This was done by opening investigations on them and calling them in for questioning.
On top of that, whistle-blower MP Rafizi Ramli made a shocking allegation on Mar 13: that the civil service probe on Azam by the chief secretary of the government revealed that the probe uncovered a total of RM14 million in shares held by the MACC chief commissioner, more than thought of earlier at about RM800,000.
Fahmi did not reveal the results of the report, only saying that “the cabinet has decided that further action will be taken by the chief secretary. I will not divulge the details of the report… For further information, we will wait for the (chief secretary’s) statement.”
That in itself is a shocking turn of events – the chief secretary has made his report and it was discussed in the cabinet but it has not been disclosed. Why? At the time of writing, no response has been made to Rafizi’s allegation that Azam owned RM14 million in shares.
Disclose report to the public
Considering that this is a new development, the cabinet should have made a decision and disclosed it to the public instead of waiting for the chief secretary. The public is entitled to ask why there is needless delay on an important issue like this.
Surely Azam Baki cannot continue to be MACC chief commissioner when his agency is being investigated by multiple agencies over allegations that they collaborated with crooks to engineer shareholding changes in some companies.
The MACC has recently announced some rather high-profile investigations involving larger companies and large takeover offers, with money laundering investigations allegedly numbering in the billions of ringgit and involving other countries. This is all the more reason that Azam is seen to be squeaky clean.
The recent sequence of events involving IJM Corporation, currently the subject of a takeover by Sunway Bhd, shows emphatically how Azam is compromised in the light of the Bloomberg allegations.
Bernama reported on Mar 4, (after the Bloomberg report) quoting Azam that the MACC has opened three investigation papers involving IJM Corporation Bhd, including financial transactions and overseas investments worth approximately RM2.5 billion.
He further said the anti-graft agency is cooperating with the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO UK) in terms of information sharing, and investigations are currently ongoing at all levels.
MACC’s probe also focuses on an alleged bribery case involving a project, and the company’s chairman was recently called in to assist with the investigation. “There is an additional investigation involving the issue of a tip – over shares transaction by Sunway,” he added.
(Sunway is currently in the midst of a takeover offer for IJM, which the IJM board, on the strength of the recommendations of its advisers, says is too low. In a press release, IJM said the assessed fair value of IJM shares was RM5.84 to RM6.48 per share.
The implied price to IJM shareholders is RM3.08 per share, representing a 47.6% to 52.7% discount to the valuation range determined by the independent adviser, it said.)
“We are also examining whether there are elements of corruption, abuse of power, as well as governance issues in this matter, bringing the total number of investigation papers opened so far to three,” Azam said.
Array of allegations
That seems to be a large array of allegations made against Tan but the question is how many of these are valid and was it necessary to reveal these allegations at the investigation stage?
After all, there is only one chairman of IJM, and even if he is not named, it is easy for anyone to ascertain who that is. To leave needless suspicions lurking in people’s minds is not proper at all, to say the least.
On Feb 6, (before the Bloomberg report) The Edge reported that IJM’s chairman (Krishnan Tan Boon Seng) has been released after being detained to assist investigations by the MACC. He was released within 24 hours due to his health condition, Azam told The Edge in a text message.
In a short statement issued through IJM, Krishnan responded thus: “I am the Non-Executive Chairman of IJM Corporation Berhad and I am not involved in the day-to-day operations and management of the Company.
“I have fully cooperated with the authorities and will continue to do so. I have full confidence in the enforcement process and the laws of the country. At this juncture it would not be appropriate for me to comment further as investigations are ongoing.”
Reputational damage
It’s surprising that Tan was actually detained, and released only because of his health condition. The reputational damage for such a prominent personality, the chairman of one of the largest construction groups in Malaysia and a well-respected corporate personality, is enormous.
But Azam had publicly announced this leading to speculation over his aims. In the light of the Bloomberg report, it becomes clear that Azam cannot operate without questions being asked because he is in a conflict-of-interest position. He needs to step down – now.
P Gunasegaram says top law enforcement officials must be clean and seen to be so.
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