19 engineers held, RM4.2m seized
Published on: Friday, October 21, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Anti-graft officials investigating a RM3.3 billion scandal in the Sabah Water Department have waded deeper into the cesspool, this time nabbing 19 engineers from across the State in a second wave of operations. During the arrests, they seized RM4.2 million from some of them, discovered about RM3.6 million in some of their bank accounts and, even worse, that they had been getting kickbacks of between 27 and 30 per cent on projects in their respective jurisdiction. Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Deputy Chief Commissioner (Operations) Datuk Azam Baki said the engineers, namely divisional and district heads, were roped in after investigators gleaned more information following the initial arrests of their bosses, namely the director, his deputy, his businessman "Datuk" brother, his accountant and a former deputy director, all of whom had been arrested earlier.
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The latest arrests brought the number of people pulled up for questioning by the MACC to 101 since the scandal came to light on Oct 4. On Thursday, 14 of the engineers, aged between 30 and 50, were remanded for seven days by Magistrate Cindy Mc Juce Balitus, here.Another three suspects, aged between 40 and 50, were remanded for four days by the Tawau Magistrate's Court, one more was remanded for a week by the Sandakan Magistrate's Court and one remanded for four days in the Lahad Datu Magistrate's Court.Azam said the latest operation was carried out simultaneously in 27 locations on Wednesday, involving the department's division and district branches throughout the State, among others, Ranau, Kota Marudu, Penampang, Telupid, Sandakan, Tawau and Kota Kinabalu.
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"MACC also froze bank accounts with money amounting to about RM3.6 million belonging to some of the suspects."Initial investigations revealed that the division and district heads had collected between 27 per cent and 30 per cent of the department's total project value from contractors who were offered job quotations and ad hoc works Statewide," he said.
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He added that various documents were also seized during the operation and MACC officers are still examining all the documents for the purpose of collecting evidence."MACC also wants to stress that so far the investigation does not involve any politician whether at State level or the Federal Government."Accordingly, the commission calls on all parties not to politicise the issue or take advantage of the ongoing investigations by the MACC for their own interests," he said. Azam said the case involves a number of documents and a lot of MACC officers were now actively examining all the documents that had been seized."It takes time to complete the investigation before the investigation papers can be submitted to the Deputy Public Prosecutor for further action."MACC takes this matter seriously and assures that investigations are carried out in a transparent and professional manner without intervention from any party," he said, reminding people against speculating on the case because it could jeopardise investigations. Azam urged anyone with information to come forward to help the investigation.The latest development brought the amount of cash seized to an estimated RM126.6 million, so far the biggest in the history of MACC.Among other items seized in the case thus far are RM30 million worth of 127 land titles, RM2.74 million worth of luxury cars, branded handbags worth RM500,000, branded watches, jewellery amounting to RM3.64 million and foreign currencies worth RM8.3 million.Last Tuesday, MACC also revealed more than RM30 million had been transferred into the foreign bank accounts held by the director and deputy director in three countries. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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