PETALING JAYA: Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has got his facts and law wrong in defending top graft-buster Azam Baki over his ownership of corporate shares, a PKR MP has claimed.
Sungai Buloh MP R Sivarasa told FMT that Wan Junaidi was wrong on the value of shares owned by Azam, as well as on the laws on share ownership by public servants.
Yesterday, Wan Junaidi said the shares owned by Azam were “not expensive” when they were acquired in 2016 — priced between 30 sen and 33 sen each — and that the one million units were valued at RM330,000 at the time.
However, Sivarasa said records show that shares and warrants were bought under Azam’s name between 2015 and 2016 in two public-listed companies. This, he said, would have been worth some RM2 million.
For the record, Azam has said that he did not purchase the shares and that his brother had used his share account to purchase them.
Sivarasa said Wan Junaidi had also ignored Service Circular 3/2002, which sets a RM100,000 cap on the value of shares that a civil servant can own in a single company.
He also said there are no more records of Azam’s share ownership after 2016, indicating that the shares had been disposed of.
“Where is the money?” he said, adding this needs to be probed.
MPs call for meeting of select committee
Meanwhile, four opposition MPs who are part of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department expressed their disappointment in Wan Junaidi for coming to Azam’s defence.
The four — Azis Jamman (Sepanggar), Chan Foong Hin (Kota Kinabalu), Khoo Poay Tiong (Kota Melaka) and William Leong (Selayang) — also questioned if the committee’s chairman and Kuala Krai MP, Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman, would call for a meeting on the issue.
Separately, Transparency International Malaysia added its voice to calls for an independent probe into the matter.
“We urge the government to commission an independent investigation body consisting of properly qualified and independent persons to uncover the facts of the case and determine if any laws or rules were broken.
“Such a body should be answerable to, and shall report their findings to the Parliamentary Special Committee on Corruption for its review and recommendations,” it said in a statement.