Claiming Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) Inc’s alleged abuse of funds meant to empower the Bumiputeras puts the community’s future at risk, a PAS lawmaker demanded today that a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) be established to investigate reports of the agency’s property investments in Melbourne, Australia.
In a statement here, Pokok Sena MP Datuk Mahfuz Omar said it must be explained why the agency had agreed to pay inflated prices for the properties, as alleged last week in Australian daily The Age and this week by the National Oversight and Whistleblowers (NOW) group.
“And because MARA is an agency tasked to empower the Malays and the Bumiputeras, a matter enshrined in the Federal Constitution, it is only appropriate that I repeat my call for an RCI to conduct an impartial investigation,” he said in a statement here.
NOW, an oversight body led by PKR’s Rafizi Ramli, started scrutinising MARA Inc’s Melbourne purchases after Australian daily The Age revealed in an expose last week that a top MARA officer, senior official and former politician had allegedly overpaid A$4.75million (RM13.8 million) for the apartment block in Melbourne, purportedly a form of kickbacks.
The body has since claimed that MARA Inc had overpaid for another two Melbourne properties – one on 333 Exhibition Street and another on 51 Queen Street property.
According to NOW, the agency overpaid some US$9 million or RM27 million for the property on Exhibition Street, and about A$5.35 million or RM18 million for the latter property.- malaymailonline
