GEORGE TOWN, March 15 — The Penang state government is seeking further clarification from Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZC), a developer for the state’s controversial undersea tunnel project, about the corruption allegations against it.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said CZC had written to explain allegations that it had paid RM22 million to two individuals to stop a corruption investigation into the infrastructure project.
“We received a reply from Zenith last week, but we are not happy with the reply so we have written to them for more clarification,” he said.
The Penang state government wrote to CZC on March 2 demanding an explanation after the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) arrested a businessman for allegedly accepting RM19 million from CZC to stop investigations into the project.
Lim previously disavowed knowledge of the alleged bribe.
MACC started investigating the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project back in 2016 and continued the probe early this year.
The agency had detained four senior executives for questioning in its investigations into the case and conducted raids at various offices including state government agencies last month.
