While questions continue to hang over whether the government linked companies (GLCs) would see an out of court settlement with Tajudin Ramli, another issue of immediate concern is whether the on-going investigations by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission on the tycoon will also be dropped.

There are fears of such a possibility raised by the latest development where the proposed settlement was confirmed by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz yesterday.

And such worries seem justified as the MACC is now under the Prime Minister's Department, which in turn is under Nazri's purview himself.

tajudin ramliThe MACC had last year said they were re-opening the probe against Tajudin (left) because of Malaysia Airlines's questionable deal in purchasing the MasKargo facility in Hahn, Germany.

MACC's operations review panel chairperson Hadenan Abdul Jalil had revealed this last December when he said the move came after new evidence in the matter was uncovered.

"Allegations that the MACC is not investigating (Tajudin) are baseless as new evidence has emerged and the MACC is looking into it," Hadenan had said then.

This was re-affirmed by the MACC's complaints committee chairperson, former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Nor Abdullah in March that the investigations were still on-going.

The anti-graft body had initiated investigations in 2002 following a series of police reports against Tajudin, who was MAS executive chairman from 1994 to 2001, for causing the national carrier to suffer billions in losses.

This prompted a two-pronged probe, one by the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) and the other by MACC.

It was learnt the CCID had recommended action against Tajudin but this was allegedly shot down by Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail.

Allegations were subsequently levelled at Abdul Gani for possibly covering-up the matter, when it was claimed he had gone on the haj with Tajuddin's aide, Shahidan Shafie.

Text messages and calls made to MACC's chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed and investigations director Mustafar Ali had gone unanswered.

Malaysiakini will continue with attempts to get their response.

Abuse of ministerial power

There are also quarters suggesting action against Nazri for possible abuse of ministerial power in issuing the letter asking GLCs to settle their cases with Tajudin by withdrawing their suits.

In doing so, the letter which was issued on Monday had also effectively terminated the services of several law firms employed by GLCs and appointed a known Umno law firm in Putrajaya, Hafarizam Wan & Aisha Mubarak in their place.

Several well known local law firms were engaged by the GLCs five to six years ago to oversee their case against Tajudin.

Opposition leader and former DPM Anwar Ibrahim, had questioned Nazri's motive for issuing the letter, pointing out that it is only the finance minister or the ministry which owns the GLC had the right to issue such letters.

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua also echoed similar sentiments that it is a clear case of a minister using his superior position to exercise undue influence over decisions pending in these companies.

"Such an instruction from a minister's office, especially one with no authority over the various GLCs including Malaysia Airlines System (MAS), Telekom Malaysia and Prokhas (formerly Danaharta), must be at the very least highly improper, and at worst an illegal and corrupt practice to allow Tajudin to get away with billions of ringgit in debt."

Pua said Nazri had no business giving instructions of any kind to the GLCs because he does not sit on the board of directors of any of these companies tasked to make decisions in their best interest.

"In fact, the party that is best positioned to advice the Boards on their legal case is their appointed legal team, which were taken by complete surprise by the directive from the minister."

NONENazri, (right) has however defended the move, saying he had obtained the go-ahead from Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah to resolve the issue upon being approached by Tajudin.

He added that the settlement was merely advice despite what was carried in the letter regarding the cases with some entering their sixth year.

But some quarters familiar with the case questioned the move to replace the existing law firms with one with close links to Umno. Had the board of directors of these GLC approved the deal or did the directive come from elsewhere?

Question mark over global settlement

There are also questions over the much highlighted Global settlement as proposed by Tajudin, the major one being whether it is truly in place.

The suspicion that all was not at it seems was triggered by past Malaysiakini reports that at his request, the tycoon's appeal was postponed twice since October last year.

On the second postponement in January this year, it was revealed that MAS had not received a proposal from Tajudin.

It still remains to be seen whether Tajudin will submit his proposal for the settlement.

MAS had among others filed a RM200 million suit against Tajudin, as did Celcom, TRI, Telekom Malaysia Bhd and the government.

Tajudin then filed a RM500 million counter-claim against MAS and other counter-claims against related companies. In 2006, he filed his defence and counter-claim to the tune of RM13.6 billion against the government.

Parties have until Sept 29 to inform Federal Court judge Justice Md Raus Shariff for case management whether or not a settlement can be reached.

 

 

Tajudin - another case of 'you help me, I help you'