Putrajaya, MACC mulling ban on ministers, top officers from government deals
(MM) – Abu Kassim said the MACC was working to plug the legal loophole that allows top ranking officials to escape charges when their family members are awarded contracts through direct negotiation.
Anti-graft authorities are tying up with the Najib administration to look into the possibility of legislating a ban on government officials abusing family ties to bid for lucrative projects, Tan Sri Abu Kassim Mohamed has said.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner said it was “high time” to plug the legal loophole that allows top ranking officials to escape charges when their family members are awarded contracts through direct negotiation.
The family members of those in power should be legally barred from such direct government deals, the anti-graft chief said in a recent interview here.
“We believe there should be a kind of regulation in the states or even in Parliament, in ministerial level saying that if you are a minister or chief minister of a state, you should not allow your close family… to (be) involved in applying direct negotiation or land or logging area.”
He said MACC was “communicating” with the government on this matter, adding that efforts were being made to introduce changes to the law.
“That is the technicality that we want the government to look into,” he said.
At present, Abu Kassim explained that those in positions of power — including ministers or chief ministers — could evade power abuse or graft allegations by simply opting out of government meetings where contracts or land awards are decided on.
Only those who failed to declare their family ties with those bidding for these contracts, he said, would be penalised.
“When we investigate, we discover that he did not make that decision, it was done by his subordinate or deputy,” he said when illustrating such cases, adding that the deputy who chaired the decision-making meeting would then award it to the family members.
He explained that many people now exploit what is seen as a legal loophole, successfully avoiding prosecution by virtue of the technicality.
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