KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 ― The Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government must explain publicly its decision to retain Tan Sri Annuar Musa as Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) chairman in the wake of the Australian property scandals during his leadership, PKR’s Rafizi Ramli said today.

The opposition lawmaker added that the government must instead bring all those involved in the scandal from the start to book, including Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh who held the chair when the deals were struck.

“Ismail Sabri as the minister responsible should explain to the public why Tan Sri Annuar Musa is still appointed to be MARA president for the new term despite all the revelations showing that he knew about the purchase but did not act on in it to solve it,” the PKR secretary-general said in a statement.

He urged MARA not to try to cover up the property scandal in Australia by only terminating the contracts of the two top officials involved.

Instead, Rafizi urged MARA to investigate further the case and bring all those involved to the face of justice.

“Ismail Sabri should also answer why till now the former MARA chairman when the purchases were made, which is Idris Jusoh has not been called in or investigated when it all happened under his watch,” the Pandan MP said.

On July 2 this year, Annuar said both officers 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 Rafizi.

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.