The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has detained three directors of a company for bribing their way to an RM90 mil contract with Tourism Malaysia.
While Tourism Malaysia’s website shows an empty page on its procurement list, this issue was brought up by portal Marketing Magazine early this year which has a screenshot of the tender awards page.
It shows that the company in question is a certain IO Movement Sdn Bhd.
The company was founded by Ibrahim Ivan Omar and, according to company filings, the current directors of IO Movement are Rachel Chew Kay Leng Omar and Murada Nur.
Past directors were Mohamed Nazli Ab Halim and Mohd Adnan Idris. Nazli resigned on March 9 this year and was replaced by Murada, while Adnan quit on Aug 10, 2016.
IO Movement’s shareholders are Chew (90%) and Tunku Izrina Mazuin Tunku Iskandar (10%). Tunku Izrina was also a director from Nov 20, 2007 to Aug 8, 2016.
The company made a net profit of RM33,709 on the back of RM191,510 in revenue for the financial year 2016.
Further checks show that Chew is only a shareholder of IO Movement but Tunku Izrina is a director or shareholder of a clutch of companies.
Among them, she is a shareholder of Melewar Utama Sdn Bhd (9.99%), a subsidiary of Melewar Group Bhd, where her father Tunku Iskandar Tunku Abdullah is a director. The Melewar Group’s shareholders and directors come from the Negri Sembilan royal family.
IO Movement is described as a company providing consultancy services in public relations and communications.
According to sources, the three directors, aged between 31 and 48, were detained at MACC headquarters yesterday, and are remanded for four days.
Lawyer Faisal Moideen of Moideen & Max Advocates & Solicitors represented the three directors during the remand process.
Sources said the three directors had paid bribes to secure an RM90 mil promotional contract for Tourism Malaysia by way of presenting false documents and information on its tender.
Despite not fulfilling the necessary conditions to qualify for the contract, including failing to meet technical and financial requirements, the contract was still awarded after certain officials were given “bribes”, said sources.
It is understood that MACC has identified officials in the agency who collaborated with the trio and will make more arrests soon.
The case is being investigated under Section 17(a) and Section 18 of the MACC Act 2009. – June 11, 2020
