KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — A political secretary caught with RM2 million cash will be told to resign in a clear sign that the Najib Administration wants anti-graft authorities to investigate without pressure from politicians.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) yesterday confirmed detaining a political secretary to a senior minister in Penang last Thursday. The Umno man is also said to own properties worth millions of ringgit.
“Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is very firm about this. He wants MACC to investigate without fear or favour,” a government source told The Malaysian Insider.
It is understood the senior minister and his staff are disappointed with the political secretary as he has smeared the government’s name and fight against corruption.
“The minister feels betrayed as he trusted the man,” a source said.
The man was arrested after MACC officials from its Putrajaya headquarters raided an apartment in Teluk Air Tawar at 3.30pm on Thursday and seized the cash in bundles of RM5, RM10, RM50 and RM100 notes.
It was reported that a 4WD vehicle registered under the name of a Pulau Tikus-based company was also seized, along with a BMW registered in the name of a person from Sarawak.
The political secretary has been under investigation since late last year after allegations cropped up that he had secured properties by being the middleman in deals for approval of multi-million ringgit projects.
Several pro-Umno blogs have identified the political secretary but MACC have declined to name him.
The MACC then had his bank accounts were frozen. It is not know whether this is related to the large amount of cash found on him in the past week.
The MACC had then successfully seized several of his properties, including four luxury cars and four houses. The commission has launched an investigation into the purchased properties located in the Klang Valley.
Several other people linked to the case have also been hauled up to assist in investigations.
The MACC recently cleared several top politicians from both sides of the divide but said investigations were going on for other high-profile cases. It has also reported that 50 people have been hauled up for graft in Penang for the whole of 2009.
The Najib Administration has put fighting corruption as a key target in its National Key Results Areas (NKRAs) under the Government Transformation Plan (GTP) released late last month.
But the MACC has been fighting public perception that it only targets opposition politicians and not those from the ruling Barisan Nasional federal government.
MACC chief commissioner Datuk Abu Kassim Mohamed and his men have said that they conduct investigations without fear or favour and it’s up to the prosecutors to take their case to court when enough evidence is found.
The MACC probed a total of 939 cases last year of which 633 have been brought to the legal department for further action.
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