KUALA LUMPUR: A company registered as a cosmetic company has allegedly doubled up as a flood mitigation consultant, siphoning millions of ringgit from an RM16 billion government flood mitigation project meant to address the flooding issue nationwide.
New allegations have also surfaced against several law firms in Klang and Batang Kali that allegedly facilitated the money transaction by 'legalising' the payouts through the firms via an agreement with the companies awarded the flood mitigation projects.
No open tenders were made for the project, and names of companies awarded were also pre-selected, with commission terms of as high as eight per cent to be given as consultancy fees to the law firms.
Bersatu Information Committee member Badrul Hisham Shaharin, better known as Chegu Bard, met outside Dang Wangi police headquarters today and claimed there are some serious corruption practices involving a flood mitigation plan worth more than RM16 billion and wanted the police to investigate the matter.
He said the trouble started brewing in November last year when former Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man was accused of awarding a company an RM7bil flood mitigation project.
"Although he (Tuan Ibrahim) denied approving the funds for the project, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ordered a review of all project proposal papers and ordered that an open tender be made to lower the cost, but it was not done.
"In April this year, some confidential letters requesting for a direct negotiation, with a list of company names readily proposed, was leaked," he claimed.
He claimed that the flood mitigation project, which was ordered to be reviewed to lower its cost via open tender, had now increased to RM16bil.
"All the companies that were listed in the letter and had entered the final stage of negotiations were also forced to sign an agreement to give commissions to proxies of ministers and people in the government," he claimed after accompanying Zamri Abu Bakar Azam from Viral Property Melaka and Zool Amali Hussin from Bozz Jebat lodge a police report at Dang Wangi here.
Speaking on the agreement he sighted, he claimed commissions that companies acquiring projects were required to pay ranged from three to eight per cent.
"The money is deposited from the company to the lawyer's account before being given to an individual or company that is the minister's proxy or that anyone in authority then awards the project. We have provided all the documents related to this corruption (allegations) to the police today, calling them to investigate all those involved," he claimed.
He added that some of these companies are not even registered as consultants and do not have any significant role in the execution of the flood mitigation project.
"Our checks also showed that one of the project recipients is a driver at a local council in Selangor.
There is also an agreement with a proxy lawyer to use a company for its names alone. But when we checked, it is a company selling beauty products and cosmetics," he added.
He said these are wastages and corruption at the highest order, and police must investigate all those involved.
"This is not all; there is also evidence that similar crony proxy practices also exist in projects related to schools and hospital projects. So far, almost RM1 billion in leakage has been detected from the entire RM16 billion budget allocated for the mitigation project," he claimed.
He, too, claimed that the flood mitigation project has also been delayed to facilitate the disbursement of commissions to all those involved.
The New Straits Times has reached out to the relevant authorities for their comments on these allegations.