JOHOR BARU, July 26 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has detained six people, including a district engineer and two assistant engineers from the Public Works Department (JKR) here, for allegedly accepting kickbacks from contractors.
It is understood that the alleged bribes were for several projects in a district in Johor under the government department’s jurisdiction.
A MACC source said the district engineer together with the two assistants, aged between 31 and 44, were detained during an operation in a series of raids carried out at several locations in the state yesterday morning.
MACC operatives also detained three contractors, aged between 31 and 44, to assist investigations.
“The three contractors are believed to have offered to bribe the three earlier suspects to obtain projects offered by the government department in Johor since 2018,” said the MACC source today.
It is learnt that the contractors control 11 companies registered under their names as well as their proxies to obtain all the projects being offered from JKR for a particular district.
MACC investigators believe that the projects, spanning 2018 to 2021, that were under the contractors, are worth millions of ringgit.
The source also added that various forms of kickbacks and gratifications were given to the suspects, including vacation packages, cash and items of value, including a boat.
All six suspects were brought to the Johor Baru Magistrate’s Court here earlier today.
Five of the suspects have been remanded for seven days until August 1, while another suspect is under remand until July 30 to assist the investigation under Section 17(a) of the MACC Act.
MACC intelligence director Datuk Azmi Kamaruzaman confirmed the arrests but declined to elaborate further.
