KUALA LUMPUR: Iskandar Puteri member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang has challenged Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki to furnish proof for his claims that bribery and power abuse were rampant in Penang.
On Thursday, Azam named Penang, Johor and Selangor as the top three states with the most number of corruption cases in the country.
Most graft cases in the island involved false claims and enforcement issues, he said.
In response, Lim asked Azam to reveal the corruption statistics for other states in Malaysia, the time-frame for the data, and list down the most corrupt and least corrupt states in the country.
"How many persons have the MACC charged in court for bribery and abuse of power in Penang and what were the figures for the other states?
"Furthermore, does this (data) refer to (corruption cases involving) the federal government or the state Government?
"This is one subject the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Agencies under the Prime Minister's Department should call up Azam to explain and elaborate.
"The MACC chief should not make irresponsible statement against any state without facts and figures," he wrote in his blog today.
The DAP stalwart also urged the PSC on Agencies under the Prime Minister's Department to hold an urgent meeting in the first week of October to complete several investigations on the MACC.
This, he said, included Azam's conflict-of-interest case for owning a vast amount of corporate equity that was not publicly disclosed and the MACC's findings on the RM9 billion worth littoral combat ships (LCS), among others.
Lim also urged the PSC to submit its first report on these pending matters to the Dewan Rakyat by October itself.