MACC to probe all S'gor Pakatan reps

By Rahmah Ghazali (Malaysiakini)

Jul 16, 09 8:48pm

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has accelerated its investigation on all 36 Pakatan representatives in Selangor including Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim, claimed Kampung Tunku assemblyperson Lau Weng San.

According to Lau, whose office was raided by the commission yesterday, the MACC officers have now taken all documents pertaining to Pakatan's community programmes at Gombak's land office and will start investigating from one area to another.

"They (MACC officers) also told me that they will investigate other reps, and not just the seven (as mentioned by state exco Teresa Kok)," Lau (left) told reporters at MACC Selangor headquarters in Shah Alam.

It was reported previously that seven Pakatan state reps in the state were investigated by the commission in relation to the use of state funds in their respective constituencies.

This was followed by several raids at Lau and state exco and Sri Kembangan assemblyperson Ean Yong Hian Wah's offices.

Pakatan is prudent in its spending

According to Lau, MACC is on a "fishing expedition" to see whether there were any misuse of the funds.

"They wanted to ensure that all the community programmes that we organised thus far are legitimate and people were attending them.

"They (the MACC) apparently also wanted to make sure that the elected reps do not easily claim money from the land office (which is in charge of the funds) for organising the events," Lau said.

But Lau assured that all Pakatan representatives have been prudent in their spending as they have strictly followed the land office's rules when it comes to claims.

"It is diffcult to get any claims from the land office because they normally require photos relating to our community events as evidence," he said.

"But I do hope MACC can give an explanation as to why they appear so unsatisfied with our allocations," said Lau.

Report lodged against BN state rep instead

Lau was initially called up by the MACC to get his statements recorded today, but his appointment has been postponed to a later date.

He, instead, lodged a corruption report against former BN assemblyperson for Kampung Tunku, Wong Sai Hou, for allegedly misusing the state funds amounting RM500,000 within three months before the March general election last year.

According to him, Wong had spent up to RM30,000 a day for different functions in his constituency.

Showing a list events that he obtained from a land office, he indicated that the events organised by the previous administration were mostly "big events".

"And each of the event, they would spend exactly RM10,000, which is the maximum amount that can be claimed from the land office," said Lau.

He hoped the MACC could accelerate their investigation on the BN representative as fast as its investigations on the Pakatan reps.

Similar complaints had been lodged by Pakatan reps before this, where BN assemblypersons had allegedly spent 90.6 percent of the total state allocations within the first two months of this year, amounting to RM27 million.

However, an investigation has yet to be carried out by the commission.