KUALA LUMPUR: Graft busters from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) came knocking on the doors of the Malacca chief minister’s office yesterday to facilitate investigations into an ongoing corruption case.
The New Straits Times, which was alerted to MACC’s surprise visit by Datuk Seri Idris Haron’s circle, staked out his office, Seri Negeri.
The NST learnt that the commission’s officers, a flying squad from the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya, arrived at Idris’s office about 2pm and recorded his statement.
The visit to the office was also for the officers to recover documents. They left with several boxes, believed to contain items vital to their investigations. They left the office close to 6pm.
It was understood that the ongoing probes, under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009, were linked to a Nov 28 arrest of a government officer for alleged corruption.
The NST learnt that while the officer under probe by the graft busters is under the payroll of a government office, he also had links to the chief minister’s office. The commission has frozen the officer’s bank account, which contained millions of ringgit.
The NST called and sent Idris a WhatsApp message for comments, but all went unanswered. Following that, the NST contacted his press secretary, Cassie Lee Szee Phei, and told her that this newspaper wanted Idris’s comments on the MACC visit. She called the NST about 9pm, saying that she had alerted her boss and was awaiting his response.
Late last night, at the end of a state government function, Idris, when approached by the NST, said “the MACC came to see me to set a date to complete their investigations into arrests (of officers in Malacca). I will let you know when it happens”. Additional reporting by Kelly Koh