The latest corruption involving a former top officer of Iskandar Investment Bhd (IIB) is beginning to taint investor confidence in the ambitious southern region integrated development, the DAP says.

DAP’s Mengkibol assemblyperson Tan Hong Pin and its state Youth chief Mahdzir Ibrahim said the RM 30,000 fine meted on former IIB vice-president and Medini Iskandar chief executive officer Hanafiah Abu Mansor for accepting a RM 25,000 bribe was a continuation of corruption charges levelled against other top Isandar officers.

IIB is fully owned by the Malaysian government investment arm, Khazanah Nasional.

“On Dec 27, 2011, the husband of the then IIB CEO was charged with soliciting RM1.6 million as inducement to obtain a project.  At the same time, another senior vice-president was convicted on a corruption charge and fined RM20,000.  

“Corruption scandals, one after another, broke from within the same government-linked company that is entrusted with the most important regional development programme in Johor, and perhaps even in Malaysia,” Tan and Mahdzir said in a joint statement yesterday.

“With corrupt officers occupying key positions in Iskandar Malaysia, we are sending the wrong message to the public as well as to investors from local and abroad.”

Why was alternative charge offered?

Tan and Mahdzir also questioned the alternative charge offered to Hanafiah, as he was in October last year charged on two counts of bribery for a RM2.7 million road project under Section 16 of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, which carries a 20-year jail term and a hefty fine.

Hanafiah had pleaded not guilty to the offence, but on Jan 9, a lighter charge of bribery involving RM25,000 was brought against him, to which Hanafiah pleaded guilty and was fined RM30,000.

“The government must clarify whether the original charges under the MACC Act were dropped and why was he offered an alternative charge that carried a lighter sentence?” Tan and Mahdzir said.

“Now, Hanafiah has admitted guilty to the second offence, when he was offered an alternative charge under the Penal Code. Has MACC decided to forego the first charge, which involves money 10 times more than the second charge?”

Hanafiah admitted to receiving the RM25,000 bribe from one Mohd Zulkifli Arif in 2010, while in the original charge, he was accused of soliciting 10 percent worth of the RM2.7 million project from the same person, Mohd Zulkifli, back in June 2009.

Hanafiah was handed the fine after pleading for leniency in a sessions court in Johor Bahru. He is now reportedly serving as the CEO of JP Logistics Sdn Bhd.