KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) must launch immediate investigation into claims that Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) officials were also involved in other dubious property deals in Australia through shelf companies in Singapore, Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) said today.

The group’s president Datuk Akhbar Satar noted that apart from the controversial A$22.5 million (RM65 million) Dudley House purchase in the Victorian state capital of Melbourne, the Australian paper that made the expose, The Age, had also alleged that Malaysian officials have used other shelf companies to purchase properties in Queens Street and Exhibition Street in Melbourne’s Central Business District for around A$40mil (RM115mil).

“This makes us question — is this just the tip of the iceberg? …TI-M calls on MACC to not only examine the procurement activities of these offshore shelf companies which are related to MARA, but also the money trails, transactions and beneficial ownership of legal entities,” Akhbar asked in a statement issued just hours after MARA chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa held a press conference on the matter.

Annuar told reporters in the briefing that the Dudley House unit buy by MARA Inc was done according to procedure and that MARA was unaware that the price had been artificially inflated.

TI-M said it strongly feels there are adequate provisions in the MACC Act 2009 and Anti-money Laundering Act 2001 to investigate and bring to justice all those who are involved if the investigation shows there are sufficient evidence that they have committed a corrupt practice.

“Those officers who have been found to be involved should be punished since they have betrayed the trust given to them in using the public taxpayers’ money for purposes other than what was entrusted to them,” he said.

Akhbar added that the MACC should also seek the assistance from their Australian counterparts to assist them in securing the relevant evidence.

Yesterday, local media organisations picked up news from Australian paper The Age which alleged that a senior MARA official and two “elite” Malay businessmen were involved in corrupt practices related to the A$22.5 million Dudley House in Melbourne.

According to The Age, an eight month-long investigation by Fairfax Media, its parent publishing house, revealed that this group of “super-rich Malaysian officials” had spent government investment funds to push up the price of the student housing block that was built for A$17.8 million, but inflated by A$4.75 million to A$22.5 million.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who chairs the National Economic Council, the body that approved the deal, said in an immediate response that the authorities will investigate the allegations.

TI-M said while they welcomed Najib’s response, it said the MARA Inc fiasco underlined the extensive nature of corruption in Malaysia.

“Those fighting corruption need to break the perceived impunity protecting corrupt leaders and senior officers as indeed “the big fish” appear to escape the law ever so often”.