Anti-corruption watchdog Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) is urging the auditor-general to conduct a transparent investigation into the Menara Felcra project.

C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel also questioned whether Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob had been sleeping on the job.

“An investigation into the whole project should be commenced immediately and it should be led by the auditor-general," said Cynthia.

“The findings of this investigation have to be made public. It must be absolutely transparent in order for those responsible to be accorded punitive action and sanctions,” she told Malaysiakini when contacted yesterday.

Cynthia was responding to Malaysiakini’s report on Tuesday that the Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra Bhd) was supposed to get 12 floors of free office space for its new headquarters, in exchange for allowing the developer WZR Group to build a mixed development on Felcra land.

However, the deal turned sour when WZR Group failed to obtain bank loans to fund the project, so it convinced Felcra to take over and bankroll the project for RM687 milllion, with the WZR Group becoming the project contractor.

The project was approved by the Finance Ministry in February last year and was launched in May the same year.

Felcra chairperson Bung Moktar Radin insisted the deal was above board, while Ismail (photo) claimed he was not aware of anything amiss in the project and pledged to investigate if there were complaints.

Cynthia said it was disappointing to learn of yet another case of impropriety involving public funds, despite many being highlighted in the previous auditor-general’s reports.

She reiterated C4’s earlier calls for a new law to deal with misconduct of public officials to combat wastages, leakages and other abuses of public funds.

If no punishment was forthcoming, she said, such incidents of misuse would repeated in the future.

‘No excuse for minister’

She said there was no excuse for Ismail Sabri to be unaware of the situation.

Although the project was launched under his predecessor Mohd Shafie Apdal’s term, Ismail Sabri had held his current post since July last year.

“He must be totally lost. He assumed his portfolio for quite a few months already, so there is no excuse for him to say that he doesn’t know.

Cynthia also concurred with Pandan MP Mohd Rafizi Ramli’s call for the project to be scrapped immediately.

She said there were many other government office spaces Felcra could occupy. Hence, splurging RM687 million on a new office building was not justified and should not be a priority, she said.

“It is something that should not be a priority. However, it is given such priority because of the millions of ringgit expected to go into building the project,” she added.