They were detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on Jan 8. Seventeen others, including company directors linked to procurement firms, have also been remanded.
This probe was sparked by whistleblower claims revealing substantial monthly deposits into accounts associated with senior military figures.
The MACC had earlier intercepted RM2.4mil during an attempted transfer related to the case, which has since expanded to include the Defence Ministry, focusing on various procurement projects.
The anti-graft agency is currently probing 26 companies suspected of involvement in the corruption scheme.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin has pledged to review the military’s tender and procurement processes and overhaul its anti-corruption measures.
He said the ongoing probe into procurement contracts and reports of immoral activities in military camps had brought shame to the ministry and the Malaysian Armed Forces.
“The actions of a few have caused that erosion of credibility to spread as if everything is damaged and integrity is lost,” he said at the ministry’s annual budget allocation event, live-streamed to military camps across the country. The ministry was allocated RM21.7bil under Budget 2026.
“We are being talked about and debated in public with ugly and distorted views, something that should never happen to a principal national defence agency.”
The minister said reforms would be undertaken to restore public confidence in the Defence Ministry, including a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, and stricter enforcement of discipline.
“Rebuilding trust is the top priority as credibility is essential for the ministry’s role in both peacetime and wartime.”
The military must be seen as the nation’s first and last line of defence in safeguarding sovereignty, he asserted.
“Without trust, the ministry would exist in name only, without meaning.”
Describing corruption as a “cancer”, he said it not only denied Malaysia quality defence assets but also endangered soldiers, caused waste and inefficiency, and weakened the national defence institution’s capability.
The ministry also came under scrutiny over the weekend after social media claims that hedonistic parties were being held in military camps, with booze and prostitutes smuggled in. The Royal Malaysian Air Force (TUDM) has confirmed that 20 officers would face disciplinary action soon.
However, these present scandals pale in comparison to the improprieties over the past decades. Many of these cases have been highlighted in the media, but the culprits are yet to be prosecuted.
Take the case of the two TUDM F-5E fighter aircraft engines valued at RM55mil that were discovered missing during a routine maintenance check in May 2008.
Two men, a TUDM sergeant and a civilian company director, were charged with the theft.
On Jan 26, 2009, the Parliament Public Accounts Committee stated that there was no involvement of high-ranking military officers in the theft. However, a member of the committee disputed this conclusion. In 2016, Petaling Jaya Sessions Court judge Aslam Zainuddin ordered both men to be freed on all the charges.
In 2004, the Defence Ministry commissioned PSC-Naval Dockyard to deliver six out of 27 patrol boats for the Malaysian Navy and complete delivery by April 2008. The contract cost RM24bil plus the right to maintain and repair all of the country’s naval craft. By mid-2006, only two boats were delivered but they were not fully operational. The original RM5.35bil contract had ballooned to RM6.75bil by January 2007.
The Auditor-General attributed the failure to serious financial mismanagement and technical incompetence, noting that PSC had never built anything but trawlers or police boats before the contract.
In 2008, the Defence Ministry was accused of massive overpayment when signing a letter of intent to acquire 12 Eurocopter EC725 helicopters for TUDM for RM2.5bil. Then Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim called for an investigation, claiming that Brazil paid only US$1.2bil for 50 units of the same model.
The Opposition also accused the then Defence Minister and several individuals of their involvement in the receipt of large commissions for the purchase of two Scorpene submarines and 18 Sukhoi fighter jets.
The purchase of the Scorpene submarines was allegedly brokered by a Mongolian national, Altantuya Shaariibuu.
In October 2006, French newspaper Liberation claimed that Altantuya was informed that the commission paid by Armaris, a Spanish company involved in Malaysia’s acquisition of the submarines, had been deposited in a bank account in Malaysia.
Altantuya then allegedly flew to Kuala Lumpur with her cousin to demand her share of the commission, which was to have been US$500,000.
She was reported missing on Oct 19, 2006, and was discovered murdered with her remains found in a forested area in Shah Alam.
Her murder case was significant in Malaysia because of the alleged involvement of persons close to Datuk Seri Najib Razak who was then the deputy prime minister.
Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this observation by George Bernard Shaw: “Power doesn’t corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.” The views expressed here are the writer’s own.
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