Meeting between MACC officers and Ismail Sabri ongoing

PUTRAJAYA: Graft investigators are meeting with former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri over expenses related to his administration’s “Keluarga Malaysia” promotion.

It is learnt that a meeting between Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers and Ismail Sabri began at 10am on Wednesday (Jan 10) and are currently ongoing.

Sources said that the former prime minister’s statement would be taken with regards to contracts awarded to certain individuals and companies for the government’s promotion activities.

Attempts to obtain confirmation on the matter are ongoing.

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On Jan 8, MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said a former prime minister and his aides will be called to explain how allocation for promotions and publicity was spent during his administration.

On Jan 2, the MACC confirmed that a probe had been initiated into claims of alleged misuse of RM700mil that was spent for promotions and publicity by the two previous Federal governments between 2020 and 2022.

Source said that MACC officers had gone to the Finance Ministry as well as the Prime Minister’s Department to seek information and to obtain documents related to the case.

ALSO READ: Probe now over to MACC

Last November, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had revealed in Parliament that RM700mil had been spent since 2020 to promote the government.

The bulk of the spending was handled by the Prime Minister’s Office for advertisements and media buys to promote government initiatives.

The Prime Minister had said that close to RM500mil was spent by the eighth prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the balance was spent by his successor Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

However, Anwar said that Ismail Sabri did not spend that much and added that there were funds remaining, which his administration had used.