Don't let the biggest bust by MACC fizzle off

Don’t let the biggest bust by MACC fizzle off..

With the latest development of questioned reasonableness of fairness or justice arising from the end of extended 14 days or less remand of 4 suspects in Sabah Water Department  held in the socalled biggest bust by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for investigation, it would give the impression that it can be the biggest disgrace or dangerous precedent in the legal front when the bails (deposited or otherwise) of a total of RM1,550,000 cum sureties for such a mega theft of any dimension in the context of alleged Criminal Breach of Trust (CBT), misappropriation, embezzlement, corruption, money laundering, graft, briberies, frauds, abuses of power etc holding high offices.  It was revealed that the 4 suspects were investigated under several critical sections of various statutory laws in the nation and yet such mild treatments were dished out.

Another ”weird” development as reported was when more than 80 witnesses have had their statements recorded by MACC, including three department employees who “voluntarily” surrendered about RM1mil allegedly taken in the process of approving water projects under the RM3.3bil Federal allocations.  Would these three employees be charged later for admission of sort of guilt?

After the State Secretary Wakiman clarified that Director and deputy director would be suspended by the Public Service Commission (PSC) and under what or which category would this be?  Is it one of these such as 1. Where the Director of Public Prosecutions advises no further action against the public officer following a criminal investigation, the responsible officer shall, where the officer was under interdiction in connection with the criminal investigation, reinstate the public officer and inform the Secretary of PSC accordingly, or 2. Where the Director of Public Prosecutions decides to discontinue criminal proceedings against a public officer, the responsible officer shall reinstate the public officer and inform the Secretary of PSC accordingly or 3. They were not allowed back in offices to disturb or destroy records or evidence under investigation or 4. Any other good reasons like questioned political intervention for passage of time to thwart trials?  The State Minister of Infrastructure had made statement like “ innocent until proven guilty” despite piling evidence of massive embezzlement as exposed to play down such heinous crimes against humanity when there is growing desperate needs for water infrastructure in Sabah especially in the rural areas. Such massive funds meant for action were instead retained in meaningless profligacy in some rooms and safe deposit boxes.

With such “lenient” bail conditions including monthly reporting to Police station when such case should warrant more regular attendances.

Would all the punitive provisions under those critical laws for investigation be thrown out of the window with the “babies” after all the hoo-ha and shock over the graft – the Sabah mini version of 1MDB?  Please don’t let the images of such crimes do pay well in terms of ill gotten gains.

With that there go the premature end of the RM3.3billions allocation for the water project in Sabah when 60% or nearly RM2b is alleged to be missing.  Also why in this case only investigation was conducted over RM3.3b when several billions had also been incurred for decades in the water infrastructure?

Would these suspects still counting be brought to the Courts soon as the massive exhibits of ill gotten treasures including cash would be moved to the Courts?  What is the chance of conclusiveness for such massive frauds in the Courts after so long already after several decades in the Water Department?

Would such crimes really pay off for the suspects with short stints with the free treats of “curry rice”?  That treatment so far is so pale to what the authorities treated me as a whistle blower in the USNO era on my straight forward exposure of similar crimes committed by politicians and civil servants.  I could feel there was so much “hatred” emitting from the “poisonous” authorities as some powerful ones were very hurt with my many audit queries working as a young Examiner of Accounts at the Federal Audit Department for a few years worth anything up to RM40m. I cannot disclose the details as works were done under OSA.  I was sort of “tortured” and detained without trial for 11 months for whistleblowing against the corrupted Government then and its “uncultured” napoleons.  Today, unfortunately misinformation on my past episode still is a nasty stigma from some quarters. Yet I have survived against all odds with divine protection to keep me going in this anti-corruption crusade. My case was good deeds but penalised and hopefully the Water case is not sort of “rewarded”.

So what I observe today is that the illegal Government under BN/umno does ‘favour’ people tainted with corruption as evident by the consequences of ‘SILENCE’ of the RCI on Illegal immigrants Sabah (RCI IIS)   and somebody in the Facebook called MACC as MANA ADA CUKUP CURI and YB Siambun said “has clearly breached the principle of a good governance by the Barisan Nasional government of the day.” This happen when the illegal Government is steeply entangled in rottenness in so many matters.  Another person in social media compares the case of theft of RM1 ended with 3 years in jail.

Today with the suspension legal or otherwise and if the case drag on as usually the case, the two senior officers would be paid half pay for doing nothing and so MACC should expedite the case with prompt conclusion to bring back the morale of the civil service at large and faith with MACC.

The Sabah Water Department case had been going on for decades and yet the present case is only on the RM3.3b since 2010 hence a blessing in disguise albeit much delayed for Sabah to rid the corruption culture not only in Sabah but nationwide.  It is indeed God-incidence that I have been writing on the latest episode of Sabah Water Department graft and several more in various important authorities in the pipeline.  The impact of the latest action by MACC must be substantial and perpetuated with support all round.

We need to pray hard to set the nation free from the culture of corruption with the devastation thereof.

Joshua Y. C. Kong   19 Oct 2016