Mitra millions stolen via loopholes

PUTRAJAYA: Loopholes allowed fund recipients from the Malaysian Indian Community Transformation Unit (Mitra) to misappropriate millions of ringgit, say sources.

They said graft investigators discovered weaknesses in the management of Mitra, a special government unit set up to address the socio-economic development of the Indian community, specifically the B40 group.

“Mitra did not require the recipients to submit detailed expenditure reports for validation and the culprits knew how to exploit this lack of scrutiny to their advantage,” a source told The Star.

The source said the culprits got off by submitting periodic expenditure reports to Mitra which were not thoroughly vetted.

“There are flaws in the system, and the procedures allow this to happen,” said the source.

Sources further revealed that to cover their tracks, some fund recipients even prepared fake invoices, payment vouchers and receipts with marked-up prices and project costs that were then submitted as proof of expenditure.

“Investigators found that the culprits embezzled the funds for personal use and interests,” said a source.

It is learnt that Mitra channelled funds in three stages: half the approved allocation is disbursed after the agreement is signed; 40% after a periodic report is submitted; and the remaining 10% after it received the final report.

“The agreed projects were to take off with 50% of the funds released but this was not the case. The culprits would attach fake invoices and receipts along with a report so that the extra 40% of funds would be released to them,” another source revealed.

It is learnt that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which is investigating Mitra, has recommended several charges against the offenders, which will include criminal breach of trust.

Sources said the anti-graft agency has also recommended that the suspects be charged under the MACC Act for submitting false reports, abuse of power in cases where contracts were awarded to relatives, and payment of management fees to Mitra.

They did not say when the suspects were expected to be hauled to court. MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said in December that he was pushing for charges to be levelled soon.

So far, a total of 40 individuals have been detained in connection with the scam, with 22 of them including company directors and association presidents arrested last month.

A total of 337 companies, associations and NGOs were identified to have been approved grant allocations of about RM203mil by Mitra from 2019 to 2021.