Thursday, June 24, 2010

How to SPOT Possible Corrupt Practices in the MACC?

We all know that many Malaysians suspect that Teoh Beng Hock was murdered shortly after he was hauled in for questioning by the MACC, the authority in Malaysia that is supposed to investigate and combat corruption.
This article from the Malaysian Insider about how theMACC gets a dirty dozen sacked in 2009 is supposed to convince us that the MACC is putting up a sterling performance.

However if you read the article, the last paragraph reads:

The rest of the projects include the construction of staff quarters worth in Penang (RM12 million), Kelantan State office (RM25 million), Pahang State office (RM19 million), Perak State office (RM23 million), Kuala Lumpur MACC complex (RM25 million), Malacca state office (RM23 million) and Johor state office (RM32 million.)

I wonder why:
1.The Pahang state office costs RM19mil while the Johor office costs RM32mil. That is a price difference of RM13mil or more than 68% price difference.
2.Are these based on open tenders or the "I help you, you help me" negotiated contracts?

I would imagine that such state offices should be quite standard buildings and maybe a price difference of 15% is acceptable to suit site variations. Even the same architect can be used to reduce costs.

So how do we investigate the MACC for dubious contract dealings?

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