KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — A total of RM63 million worth of asset has been recovered from the 2016 Sabah water department scandal, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.
The amount recovered was from a RM3.3 billion fund that was meant for water infrastructure projects, he said.
“The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commision (MACC) now is focused on large-scale corruption cases, because previously it has been wasting too much time and energy on catching anchovies (ikan bilis), and this will not help as it became a systemic problem.
“A few of the cases that I refer to as large-scale corruption cases include the biggest water scandal in Sabah which involved RM3.3 billion (meant for water) infrastructure, RM63 million worth of assets was recovered through the Ops Water, and the case is still in court,” Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat during the Prime Minister’s Question time.
Secondly, Anwar said the bitcoin mining syndicates which stole electricity with losses amounting to RM2.3 billion from 2018 to 2021, and discovers through OPs Power was included in the large-scale corruption cases.
He also mentioned a recovery of RM426 million from the Hiring Incentive Programme (PenjanaKerjaya) that was done through Ops Hire. This was recovered from the false claims made during the movement control order (MCO) enforced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Anwar was responding to Parti Bersatu Sabah’s (PBS) Tawau MP who asked about the government’s measures to address corruption in the country and restore the country’s image at the international level.
“There as also the syndicate of reducing traffic summons, which involved groups of cartel as discovered in the Road Transport Department found millions of losses.
“These are among the investigations that have been conducted and continue to be investigated as proof that the MACC is more aggressive as mentioned in the Royal decree yesterday,” he added.
