PUTRAJAYA: A 42-year-old chief executive officer (CEO), who allegedly played the "middleman" in the awarding of RM92.5 billion worth of government projects under the Economic Stimulus Package to selected contractors between 2020 and 2022, has been arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
A MACC source revealed that the suspect, a private company CEO, was called in to have his statement recorded at its headquarters here last night before being detained.
"At least five individuals have come under the commission's radar over alleged misappropriation of RM92.5 billion in economic stimulus and recovery package funds.
"MACC has opened five investigation papers on these individuals, who are believed to be the mastermind or middlemen to help several companies obtain government projects worth between RM50 million to RM500 million through direct negotiations," he said.
He added that checks also showed that almost 90 per cent of the projects that were awarded had not started because there was no letter of acceptance received from the companies.
"Therefore, MACC will only focus its investigation on the 10 per cent of projects that have already started and are in the early stages of progress," he said.
Another source added that the suspect had also accepted bribes and kickbacks from contractors to help them network with government officials.
"So far, some of the contractors who were questioned had admitted to agreeing to pay a commission of three to five per cent of the total project value to a political party bank account as a political contribution," he said, adding that the man had been produced at the Putrajaya magistrate's court this morning for a remand application.
He said the court had granted a remand up to Jan 10.
MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki confirmed the arrest and said the case was being investigated under Section 16 (a) of the MACC Act 2009.