KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 18 — The National Revenue Recovery Enforcement Team (NRRET) that was established back in 2013 should have been institutionalised at the time, according to a former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief.

Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad, the MACC’s third chief who served August 2016 to May 2018, the NRRET was useful in getting various agencies together because some were working in silos.

"I led this special task force. When the attorney general changed to Tan Sri Apandi Ali, he wanted to rebrand it and it became NRRET, so that’s when it was founded,” Dzulkifli told Mingguan Malaysia in an interview published today.

He said the special administrative task force comprised the heads of various enforcement agencies, including the police, the MACC, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Customs Department, and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.

He said the NRRET’s purpose was to recover illicit money outflows, such as from tax dodgers and reduce financial leakages from subsidies, especially through the smuggling of oil.

According to Dzulkifli, the MACC was able to recover roughly RM1 billion from tax evaders when he led the team.

He said the team’s other success included retrieving undeclared tax money from gaming businesses, which amounted to hundreds of millions of ringgit and imported luxury vehicles.

"After that when the government changed, there was a policy change and NRRET was dissolved,” he was quoted as saying.

Dzulkifli said the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre (NFCC) was then established.

"But I can’t comment on its effectiveness. The existing agency is better because it has legal authority because its establishment is based on a single Act and it is quite perfect. However, unfortunately what has happened is that there is no success for an agency established after 2018.

"It can be said that the impact is not seen. Not that I want to criticise, but that’s the reality. I did think at that time that NRRET should be institutionalised and have its own law,” he was quoted as saying.

Dzulkifli said the NFCC’s impact is yet to be seen since it was set up in 2019, though he added that one advantage the new agency has is its data collection.

"It’s just that from an enforcement point of view it is less clear when compared to the establishment of the special task force and NRRET. We need to review where the mistake is,” he was quoted as saying.