Three more army men nabbed in Mindef corruption probe

KUANTAN: Three more army personnel have been picked up by anti-graft officers as investigations into alleged corruption involving a maintenance unit of the Defence Ministry (Mindef) widens.

The three, aged between 33 and 43, are supervisors of army camps in Kota Baru, Kuantan and Kluang.

They were detained at the Ma­­laysian Anti-Corruption Com­mis­sion (MACC) office here on Friday after being summoned for questioning.

They have been remanded for six days to assist investigations under Section 23 of the MACC Act 2009.

Sources said investigations pointed to the involvement of third parties in maintenance projects worth less than RM50,000 in several army camps in Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu.

“Checks showed several licensed Class F contractors made submissions during the tender process.

“The army officers tasked with issuing job indents and project approvals would then hand the work to these firms accordingly,” said a source.

It is learnt that these owners will get a commission of between 5% and 10% for allowing the names of their firms to be used to secure the tender.

The balance of the payments for the projects were then handed over to unauthorised third parties to carry out and complete the jobs.

“We believe these army officers will also get a share of between RM3,000 and RM4,000 per project in kickbacks.

“Due to this, the completed projects did not meet the specifications, causing huge losses to Mindef and the Government,” added the source.

When complaints cropped up pertaining to defects in the projects, the Government had to set aside another allocation to rectify them.

The MACC is now looking at the involvement of Mindef officers over alleged power abuse, in addition to officers overseeing the east coast zone.

It is learnt the MACC will be calling up contractors and other witnesses to assist in the probe.

MACC deputy chief commis­sioner (Operations) Datuk Azam Baki confirmed the latest arrests.

He said all documents and tender notes of maintenance projects approved over the past few years would be scrutinised closely.

“The facilities in several army camps which have been duly completed are not up to par and we are looking into all these as part of our thorough probe,” Azam said.