KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Tan Sri Abu Zahar Ujang who chairs the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (LPPR) has denied receiving any email that Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Azam Baki owned millions of ringgit worth in public stocks as alleged.
Abu Zahar told Utusan Malaysia in a report published today that he had checked with other members of the board and none had received any formal notice as claimed by former MACC Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel Edmund Terence Gomez.
“There is not even one email that was received. I have checked with the administration and they said that they did not receive any letter. Edmund’s statement has tarnished my integrity,” Abu Zahar told the Malay daily.
Utusan Malaysia previously reported Gomez claiming that he had sent a letter to Abu Zahar concerning Azam, adding that the academic had also informed another LPPR member, Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar, about it.
Gomez reportedly asked Akhtar to confirm if Abu Zahar received the email.
According to Utusan Malaysia, Akhtar confirmed receiving Gomez’s first email and believed Abu Zahar had too.
Gomez resigned as a member of the MACC oversight panel last week, reportedly in protest of the non-action taken by the commission’s Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel chairman Tan Sri Borhan Dolah.
Gomez reportedly wrote thrice to Borhan, asking for their panel to convene for a discussion of the “critical issue of national interest” as early as November last year.
Gomez said that Borhan had responded immediately to his request and agreed for a meeting to be held, but that it never happened.
Sungai Buloh MP Sivarasa Rasiah filed an urgent motion in Parliament on December 14 last year to discuss the allegations surrounding Azam who is said to own close to two million shares in a public-listed company.
Sivarasa claimed that Azam, as MACC’s investigation director between 2015 and 2016, became the owner of 930,000 shares in Gets Global Bhd as at April 30, 2015, and a further 1,029,000 shares as at March 31, 2016.
He also claimed Azam also owned 2,156,000 warrants in Excel Force MSC Bhd, another public listed company as at March 21, 2016.
The PKR MP added that Azam’s younger brother supposedly owned 3,728,000 shares in Gets Global.
