MACC excluded from renamed task force
(Sin Chew Daily) – It is learned that the new enforcement team will be headed by the AG’s Chambers, and its members include the police, Bank Negara, the Internal Revenue Board and the Royal Customs and Excise Department.
According to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), since the Attorney-General’s Chambers announced to dissolve the special task force on 1MDB, the task force has since been renamed National Revenue Recovery Enforcement Team (NRREC). MACC has been excluded from the team.
It is learned that the new enforcement team will be headed by the AG’s Chambers, and its members include the police, Bank Negara, the Internal Revenue Board and the Royal Customs and Excise Department.
The objective of the team is to recover the government’s revenue, and its investigation scope is very extensive, including the 1MDB case.
MACC deputy chief commissioner (operations) Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull said, although he was wondered by the news, he did not feel dejected because of that.
‘Not a problem’
When asked to comment whether this would affect MACC’s investigation of the RM4 billion fund involving SRC International and the RM2.6 billion deposited into the private account of prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Shukri said, “No. This will not have any effect on MACC’s investigation.
“MACC will still operate as usual because we are an independent agency acting in accordance with the country’s laws.”
“We will continue with our probe in a transparent, free and professional way. We can focus better on our job without the task force.”
Mohd Shukri, who is now the acting MACC chief commissioner, told Sin Chew Daily during a telephone interview, “The only advice I want to give to the new team is that any discovery of corruption or power abuse should be referred to the MACC, as we are charged with the responsibility to probe incidents of corruption and power abuse.”
“Perhaps the new team is more concerned about recovering government revenue, and they may think MACC has nothing much to do with it since we are not its member.”
Shukri nevertheless reiterated that MACC’s job duty was closely associated with lost government revenue and irregularities in the deployment of national resources.
“Perhaps you might not see the role of MACC in recovering national revenue. We must bear in mind that MACC’s operations and preventive measures have directly helped the government recover large sums of national wealth and save astronomical sums of money through lost tax revenue”
