MACC Failed to Investigate MAS

PAS MP claims MACC failed to investigate MAS scandal

By Adib Zalkapli

August 16, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub claimed today that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) jeopardised the investigation into the RM8 billion losses suffered by MAS more than 10 years ago.
The Kubang Kerian MP told a press conference that he had received a copy of a letter from the airline’s lawyer expressing his unhappiness with the MACC for referring the complaints to the police’s Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID).
Salahuddin (picture) said the MACC’s action violated the MACC Act 2009 as the complaint was also made against the CCID.
“I have received the letter together with the case background in my capacity as a member of the special committee on corruption,” said Salahuddin.
The special committee consists of lawmakers from the Dewan Rakyat and the Senate and is chaired by Kangar MP Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad.
“I will talk to the chairman to convene a meeting immediately I will also communicate with the MACC to ask them to take action,” said Salahuddin.
Copies of the letter to the MACC and various reports lodged by MAS were made available to the media.
MAS had first lodged a police report against its former executive chairman Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli in 2002 for allegedly causing the national carrier to suffer losses in excess of RM8 billion.
Tajuddin was the executive chairman from 1994 to 2001.
According to a report to the MACC, one of the single biggest loss under Tajuddin was caused by the relocation of MAS’s cargo operation in Amsterdam and Frankfurt to a single hub in Hahn, Germany, where the airline was forced to enter into a disadvantageous aircraft lease contract with a company, which was later found out to be under the control of Tajuddin’s family.
The new cargo hub operation had caused MAS to suffer losses of between RM10 million and RM16 million a month before the project was terminated after the government regained control of MAS in 2001.
The termination resulted in a RM300 million arbitration claim against MAS by the company said to be linked to Tajuddin.
The report to the MACC dated May last year also alleged that the Attorney-General has been reluctant to prosecute Tajuddin, despite the then-CCID chief Datuk Ramli Yusoff’s assurance in 2007 that it had identified various prosecutable offences.
It also claimed that Tajuddin had been given access to the investigation and police records, which were used to facilitate the arbitration claim.
“This scandal is as big as PKFZ, it involves public funds amounting to RM8 billion,” said Salahuddin.
“I hope the culprits in this case will not be protected,” he added.
MI