Telekom Malaysia said today it had no knowledge of any individual malpractice or any breach of ethics in respect of an award of a switchboard contract which was reported to have involved payment of kickbacks of about 300 million yen (US$2.8 million or RM10.64 million).

The company promised an investigation into the allegation that the kickbacks were paid by Mitsui and Co to Telekom Malaysia, its chief executive Datuk Wira Mohamed Said Mohamed Ali said in a statement faxed to malaysiakini .

He added that Telekom had always complied with "correct procedure in issuing contracts on tender."

Mohamed Said was responding to news report that the switchboards were delivered to Telecom Malaysia from 1996 to 1998 and the kickbacks were paid out as "commissions" via a consultant company which turned out to be a dummy company - in Malaysia in 1997.

The Asahi Shimbun , quoting sources at the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, said that Mitsui landed the contract with Telekom Malaysia in a syndicate with the high-tech giant NEC Corp to supply the switchboards with a total capacity of about 800,000 circuits. The deal was worth more than 10 billion yen (RM354.7 million).

Mohamed Said in his statement assured that his company would seek the assistance of the Anti-Corruption Agency to investigate the allegations.

"We will await the outcome of these investigations and meanwhile we can assure the public and shareholders that the appropriate action will be taken if warranted," he added.