KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 —The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has frozen several bank accounts worth RM3.2 million for further investigations into the case of false claims involving the Penjana Kerjaya Programme fund.

The freezing of all the accounts was done after the MACC arrested 67 individuals across the country in through the Ops Hire 2.0 operation from last Tuesday until yesterday.

According to a source, the latest arrest was made on a man in Sarawak, yesterday.

The source said the arrest was made on 47 men and women in the operation.

"All those arrested are company owners, directors and company managers,” the source told Utusan Malaysia, adding that the MACC is also actively tracking the assets purchased by the individual in question using the government funds.

"Some were found misappropriating government funds believed to be for personal gain, including buying assets and other luxury goods.

"MACC also believed to have confiscated two luxury vehicles that they bought utilising the funds,” the source said.

The senior director of the MACC Investigation Division, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hashim when contacted by the daily confirmed the matter.

Hishamuddin reportedly said his team is currently completing the investigation and is expected to carry out charges soon.

According to him, all investigating officers will be called to complete the investigation papers in their respective states.

"This case is monitored and coordinated by me at the headquarters level,” he said.

Utusan Malaysia had on May 17 reported that more than 100 sole proprietorship companies are on the ‘radar’ of the MACC after they were suspected of making false claims involving the Hiring Incentive Programme fund.

The companies from various sectors and fields were identified by the MACC as a result of ongoing operations and intelligence with the Social Security Organisation (Socso) which detects any individual ‘taking advantage’ or committing crimes of corruption, document forgery and fraud to obtain government funds.

Utusan Malaysia also reported that most of the companies that were detected had 10 to 70 employees who allegedly offered training and employed workers for their companies before submitting false claims and embezzling programme funds.

Last Tuesday, a total of 47 individuals comprising company owners, directors, managers were arrested by the MACC through Ops Hire 2.0 for making false claims between RM450,000 and RM2 million.

All of them are aged between 30 to 70, consisting of 33 men and 14 women who submitted a claim that they allegedly handled the recruitment and training program to Sosco, but it was not implemented as claimed.

Ops Hire 2.0 is an extension of Ops Hire 1.0 which was implemented in 2022.

All the arrests involved 51 companies identified by MACC making claims with a total value of claims of RM63 million.