Sarawak ACA has received the go-ahead from their headquarters in Putrajaya to investigate the Japan Times report implicating Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his family with the alleged RM32 million kickbacks paid by Japanese shipping companies for transporting Sarawak logs to Japan.

State ACA chief Mohd Yusoff Akope revealed this yesterday during a meeting with Sarawak PKR leaders including its liaison committee chief Wan Zainal Abidin Wan Senusi.

The meeting was to obtain an update on the issue following the opposition party's official report which was lodged on April 13 this year, in response to the call by PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that the ACA could only act if reports were lodged with the agency.

Wan Zainal told malaysiakini he was also informed that the ACA had in fact started its own investigation after the publication of the Japan Times report in malaysiakini.

"We are delighted that the ACA is probing into the case," he said.

"Only after investigations will the truth be revealed," he added.

Pool of lawyers

Sources told malaysiakini that the probe would involve obtaining documents from the Tokyo Metropolitan Taxation Bureau which had allegedly caught a cartel of shipping companies not declaring some of their income over a period of seven years for transporting logs from Sarawak to Japan.

But the Japanese shipping companies had denied doing this, saying that the income alleged to have been not declared to the tax authorities were in fact rebates or commissions paid by the companies to a Hongkong-based agency Regent Star with close links to the Taib and his family.

The chief minister has threatened to sue malaysiakini unless it withdraws all the articles related to it and apologise to him. He has also threatened legal action against PKR for distributing leaflets containing the reports.

Malaysiakini has declared that it is ready to defend itself and a pool of lawyers headed by DAP stalwart Karpal Singh has offered to take up the case for the news portal should Taib pursue his legal action.

CM not informed

Meanwhile AFP quoted Mohamad Yusoff as saying that the ACA was looking into all aspects of corruption report.

"We are proceeding with the investigation based on the allegations reported by Keadilan," he told AFP.

"We are looking at all aspects of the claims," he said.

Abdul Taib's press secretary, Amin Sahmat, said the chief minister had not been informed of the probe.