KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — The two suspended top Majlis Amanah Rakyat Inc (MARA Inc) executives linked to the recent Australian property scandal will no longer be serving the agency, Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.

The minister, who confirmed this during his Budget 2016 winding-up speech, noted that both the men — chairman Datuk Mohamad Lan Allani and chief executive Datuk Abd Halim Rahim — were suspended in July following news of their alleged involvement in the scandal, which reportedly saw the Bumiputera empowerment agency overpaying for properties in Australia.

“MARA Inc has suspended the services of its chairman and chief executive,” Ismail Sabri said in his speech.

He explained that Abdul Halim’s contract, which ended on October 1, was not renewed upon expiry.

Mohamad Lan’s term, however, will only end in March next year, after which he will be suspended indefinitely, the minister said.

He explained that because Mohamad Lan was a political appointee to the post, it was the prerogative of the minister to strip him off the position when he deems proper.

“After the case was published in the newspapers, MARA handed over the matter to its internal audit and one of the suggestions made was to initiate administrative action, and the first was to suspend the chief executive first.

“Once his contract expired, we decided to just not renew it… we decided to just stop halfway.

“As for the chairman, he does not have a contract as he is a political appointee.. it’s like I appoint him and it is also my jurisdiction to strip him off the post,” Ismail Sabri later told reporters when met later outside the Dewan Rakyat.

Ismail Sabri said that MARA Inc has also already appointed two new candidates to replace Mohamad Lan and Abdul Halim but the appointments are now pending an endorsement from MARA’s board of directors.

On July 2, MARA chairman, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, said Mohamad Lan and Abdul Halim will be relieved of their duties pending investigation into the case, but stressed that they have not been found guilty yet.

Annuar said the MARA board found suspicious information about the property deals after perusing the interim report and testimony by MARA Inc officials, which led to the decision to suspend the duo.

He also revealed that the federal agency will appoint international accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an audit of MARA Inc’s investments not just in Australia, but the UK as well.

The audit will include the RM65 million Dudley House purchase and other deals exposed by a whistleblower group run by PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

Apart from the Dudley House purchase in which MARA Inc officials allegedly pocketed about RM13 million in kickbacks, Rafizi raised the alarm over three other property deals made by the MARA subsidiary under similarly dubious circumstances.

He claimed the properties were either purchased through an offshore company or the transaction was wired through three different companies in three different countries.