Pakatan seeks probe on Umno-corporate nexus

Lim said the mingling of Umno’s interests with GLCs’ stretched back decades. — file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders are demanding a probe into Umno-linked companies being awarded lucrative government contracts, but conceded to the complexities in such an exercise and the difficulty in proving that corruption was involved

The links between Umno and certain conglomerates were revealed further in a High Court hearing last week involving the past shareholders of Realmild Sdn Bhd, the shadowy company that took over media giant The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Bhd in 1993, and Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB).

“There has to be a comprehensive investigation because for the last 30 years, there has been such a far-ranging nexus of Umno companies and the role they play not only in corporate but also government-linked company (GLC) transactions,” DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang told The Malaysian Insider.

“There is no proper accountability in the whole process,” said Lim, adding that this was the reason why Malaysia’s integrity rating took a nosedive in the past three decades.

The Ipoh Timur MP pointed out that it was difficult to identify the boundaries involving the government, the political party, and the individual in companies owned by Barisan Nasional (BN) parties.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said that there was a clear conflict of interest when the government awards contracts to Umno-linked companies.

“Whatever the government awards benefits companies [owned] by Umno and other ruling coalition parties,” said Pua.

Realmild, originally a RM2 company, was the majority shareholder of MRCB, which is now developing the KL Sentral commercial and transport hub in Brickfields.

Pua claimed that Umno’s masking of the ownership trail makes tracing the real beneficiaries “complicated”.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP added that the probe should focus on identifying the stakes in the Umno-linked companies.

“The National Audit Department should run a check on all companies where Umno holds a stake, direct or indirect, and verify them against contracts awarded by the government,” he said, adding that this must apply to all ruling parties including PR if they should capture Putrajaya.

Pua, however, admitted that the probe would be a “complicated” exercise as he claimed Umno hides their holdings under various companies.

“Trying to unravel the entire network of Umno’s ownership in many companies would be a major exercise,” he said, pointing out that the complexity was shown by the court dispute where some shares that were meant to be proxy shares were retained as personal shares.

Former Realmild director Datuk Khalid Ahmad had sued Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Maidin in March 2005 for RM10 million over the sale of a five per cent stake in Realmild in 1999, which took place during a shake-up and buy-out related to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sacking from government.

Abdul Rahman had paid RM5 million but later reneged on the remainder as he learnt from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the shares actually belonged to Umno.

Abdul Rahman is also now seeking to recover the RM5 million he paid to Khalid, saying the businessman had misrepresented the ownership of the shares.

However, Khalid has maintained that the five per cent stake was his own although he acknowledged that the majority stake was part of an “Umno Trust”.

The other directors in Realmild then were former Berita Harian group editor Datuk Ahmad Nazri Abdullah, New Straits Times group editor Datuk Abdul Kadir Jasin, and Mohd Noor Mutalib, who replaced Khalid as NSTP managing director in February 1993.

PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali noted that it was difficult for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to probe Umno-linked companies as they were private companies.

“Unless there are reports from people inside regarding irregularities, it is very difficult to prove them,” said Mustafa, adding that the national anti-graft agency had no legal grounds to investigate Umno-linked companies.

Mustafa pointed out that one way to ensure transparency despite the existence of companies owned by political parties was to implement open tenders for government contracts.

“The number of negotiated tenders by government should be reduced. They have to do open tenders,” said Mustafa.

Pua said that laws should be put in place to ban or restrict political party involvement or ownership in business interests as mere guidelines were unlikely to prevent abuses.

“In a case where the government is awarding contracts to an Umno company, it becomes complicated. The minister may step away from (making) the decision, but civil servants are under pressure to award the contract as they are under the purview of the minister,” he said.

Pua also noted that although companies participating in government tenders could be forced to disclose political party ownership, most Umno-linked companies avoided such disclosures as their shares were usually held in proxy.

Beyond the disclosures of such links, Lim also stressed that proper guidelines and accountability were still needed to prevent gross abuses.

“There has to be proper check and scrutiny to ensure public accountability and transparency and integrity of our government,” said Lim.