MACC raids Petronas offices

KUALA LUMPUR - Petronas confirmed today that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had visited its offices but denied that it was a raid or that files had been taken by the graft-busting agency.

The Malaysian Insider reported this morning that anti-graft officials raided the national oil giant in the past weeks after receiving tip-offs of alleged corruption by project consultants working on exploration and production efforts.

Petronas said that the MACC visit was part of its standard operating procedures after receiving complaints.

“Following reports on Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s alleged raid on Petronas, we would like to clarify that there was no raid carried out on Petronas by the agency and no files or documents were ‘carted away’ by the agency as alleged,” said Petronas in a statement to the media.

“Officials of MACC were at Petronas headquarters recently to facilitate its first information report procedure, which is part of the agency’s standard operating procedures following any complaints of any alleged wrongdoing.”

Petronas added that it would like to reiterate its “strong commitment” and “adherence” to internationally-recognised process and procedures in its tendering processes and has a zero-tolerance policy against corrupt practices.

Sources had told The Malaysian Insider that the Petronas management has had various meetings to discuss allegations of graft among its employees, who are among the best paid in Malaysia with perks including attractive housing loans, medical benefits and other incentives, and that management has been working on stamping out corruption, which has been identified as a National Key Result Area (NKRA) by the Najib administration.

The MACC recorded the most arrests related to graft last year, nabbing 944 people, of whom more than 400 were bribe givers.

By Lee Wei Lian