More arrests expected in project cartel probe

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission expects to make more arrests in connection with the government project cartel investigations.

MACC Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Azam Baki said investigators had arrested eight suspects, including the mastermind monopolising government tenders since 2014.

“Although we’ve arrested the mastermind, a 47-year-old businessman with the title Datuk, we believe there are a few accomplices out there.

“This is an ongoing investigation and based on developments, we believe there are others involved,” he said at the Op Hack press conference at the KL MACC office yesterday.

Present was Immigration Department director-general Datuk Khairul Dzaimee Daud.

Azam said the latest arrest was of a civil servant believed to be a material surveyor linked to the syndicate.

Sources close to the investigations said 644 individual and company accounts estimated to be worth RM100 million had been frozen for investigations.

Most of these accounts were said to be under proxies, although the faces behind these accounts were the Datuk and his men, they said.

This syndicate was said to have secured more than RM3.8 billion worth of projects, mainly doing cleaning and gardening projects at the ministerial level.

On Tuesday, it was reported that a Grade 48 material surveyor, 38, was arrested in Ampang on Sunday. He was believed to have accepted bribes to leak information on the specification of projects and had received a RM300,000 bribe for each piece of information channelled to the head of the syndicate.