SEPANG: Fifteen Immigration Department officers have been sacked, 14 suspended from work and eight had their increments frozen over the Malaysian Immigration System (myIMMs) fiasco that has seen billions being siphoned into the hands of syndicates.
And this is just the beginning of the clean-up at the Immigration Department. A new set of officers will be assigned to KLIA and 20 others are still under investigation.
Some of those dismissed were very senior personnel, having served in the department for up to 15 years, said Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Sakib Kusmi.
There will also be a major reshuffle of officers based in the headquarters in Putrajaya and state headquarters besides KLIA, added Sakib.
“We have taken drastic measures and transferred 63 officers from the headquarters. We have also prepared a new set of officers for KLIA. Those who have been at KLIA for more than six months will be transferred out.
“The sabotage that has gone on is too wide. We will continue our monitoring and our internal investigations on other suspected officers,” he said during a working visit to KLIA here yesterday.
The myIMMs is the Immigration Department’s information technology system which was developed to support its operations in providing services to the public, external agencies and stakeholders.
He said the internal investigations, carried out by the department’s own intelligence team, did not investigate directors, their deputies and former directors as there was no element of sabotage at the higher level.
The department has also identified vendors handling the myIMMs system that were allegedly involved in the sabotage but could not reveal the figures yet.
“It is not the end for those who were penalised. Some of them are also being investigated by the police and if there are any criminal elements, the police will also take action.
“They are involved in many syndicates but we cannot reveal too much. We know who they are but we don’t want them to know that we know,” he said.
Asked if it was time for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate, Sakib said he would “think later”.
“We have around 13,000 personnel and only 100 of them were suspected to be involved.
“The number might be small but it is enough to tarnish the image of the department.
On Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said some 100 people, including Immigration Department officers and syndicate members, were being investigated on suspicion of being involved in the sabotage.
The Auditor-General’s 2015 Report in its first series found among other things, weaknesses in planning, implementation and monitoring of the myIMMs. Three out of seven systems for application and payment of visas and passes worth RM10.3mil were not used.
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