KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is reportedly still continuing its money trail search for millions of ringgit allegedly received by senior officials in the Human Resources Ministry through a middleman even after a search of a minister’s office and home turned up empty.

Citing an unnamed source, Utusan Malaysia reported today that MACC officers had searched the office and home of an unnamed minister as part of its investigation into the alleged corruption of a businessman who was arrested along with two ministerial aides.

"It is understood that no seizures were made because the MACC did not find any evidence needed,” the unnamed source was quoted as saying.

The source also told Utusan Malaysia that the MACC did not rule out the possibility of summoning and taking the minister’s testimony again in the near future to assist with the investigation.

"The MACC is also working on identifying other witnesses to strengthen the investigation of the case,” the source was quoted as saying.

The source added that the MACC has not discounted the possibilities that the cash was kept in a certain location or had been used.

The Malay daily did not report the name of the minister whose office and house were searched today, but has been reporting about a purported corruption scandal involving millions of ringgit for the continued award of foreign worker recruitment contracts to certain companies.

The newspaper’s source had yesterday claimed that Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar’s house and office had been searched yesterday.

But Sivakumar had told reporters yesterday that he was not a suspect in the ongoing investigation and had fully cooperated with the MACC when he voluntarily went to its Putrajaya headquarters to record his statement.

On April 13, an aide to Sivakumar was arrested together with a recruitment agent by the MACC allegedly over quota for recruiting foreign workers, which was the purview of the Human Resources Ministry.

A day later another suspect identified as Sivakumar’s female private secretary became the latest person to be arrested by the anti-graft agency since investigations began.