KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has strongly denied any involvement in the awarding a lucrative government contract to a company supposedly linked to his son-in-law.
Referring to a report on a news portal which claimed that he was involved in awarding the National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) to IRIS Corp Bhd which was linked to his son-in-law, Muhyiddin said it is a malicious lie that was created to ruin his and his family's dignities.
"As the Prime Minister at the time, I was not involved at all in the process to award the NIISe contract to IRIS Corp, which was conducted in an open tender.
"The contract procurement process was done in the normal government procedure under the supervision of the Finance Ministry and the relevant ministry. It was not under the responsibility or jurisdiction of the prime minister at the time," said Muhyiddin in a statement on his Facebook page.
In addition, he added that none of his family members have any interest in IRIS Corp either as a company director or a shareholder.
"How is it that I, who have no power to award the contract, and my family members, who have no interest in the company that was awarded the contract, are accused of abusing power for our self interests?
"I believe this is part of a series of malicious accusations against me by the PH-BN government led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
"These accusations were intentionally made to cover the weakness of the prime minister and members of his government who appointed their children to government posts, which includes those with the responsibility and power to manage government contracts," said Muhyiddin.
He said nepotism practices could not be covered by throwing baseless accusations to other people.
On Wednesday, it was reported that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is investigating a former prime minister and his son-in-law in relation to a lucrative government contract.
A source close to MACC said the investigations are focused on possible abuse of power in the award of NIISe contract.
"MACC is looking at how the contract was given and the company's links to those who were in power at the time," the source said.