Opposition party DAP today claimed that it has new evidence that can assist the police in their investigation on Tourism Malaysia’s Korean scandal.

“We have additional materials with regards to the Korean scandal but (we) cannot disclose it (to the media) as it would tamper with police investigation,” said the party’s Selangor chief Au Yong Hian Wah today.

He said that he had submitted the additional materials to the police this morning.

Earlier today he had given his statement at the Jalan Travers police station following a police report which he lodged last week over the alleged corrupt practices involving Tourism Malaysia officers in South Korea.

On Jan 11, Malaysiakini reported TM Seoul office director Abdul Mutalib Awang and TM North Asian regional director Ramzi Abu Yazid had allegedly pocketed large sums of money under the pretext of promoting the country as a holiday destination in South Korea.

Au Yong lodged a police report on the matter at the Sea Park police station Petaling Jaya a day after Malaysiakini broke the news.

Also present with Au Yong today at the Jalan Travers police station were several other state leaders including state secretary Lau Weng San and Selangor legal bureau chief Lim Lip Eng.

Another state level leader, KA Ramu believed his party has “set the ball rolling” for the police to probe the scandal.

The ministry was quick to respond to the Malaysiakini report by initiating a domestic inquiry against the two officers.

Newspapers today also reported that the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) would be sending a team to Seoul to probe into the scandal.

According to reports, the ACA will invoke the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 2002 (Macma) due to the international nature of the scandal.

The Macma is the formal process where governments request and provide assistance in evidence gathering to be used in criminal cases.

No thumbs up for ACA

Ramu however was not excited over the ACA action.

“We hope that the ACA is not going to Seoul under the pretext of probing the scandal but end up having a vacation only. We want them to do their job so that the perpetrators would be punished,” he stressed.

“Take the Eric Chia case for example, the ACA went to Switzerland and Japan and all that, supposedly to collect information but at the end what happened? The case was thrown out,” he added.

Eric Chia, the former head of the national steel company Perwaja Steel was acquitted of embezzling RM76.4 million today after a court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove a prima facie case. This after the ACA and the prosecution went to Hong Kong, Switzerland and Japan to gather evidence.

“We hope this time the ACA can improve themselves so that the Korean scandal can be solved without having to waste public resources,” he added.

As for their next step, Au Yong said he will try and meet the auditor-general (AG) and highlight on the need for the AG to probe the conduct of all TM offices worldwide.

“Following the expose on the Korean scandal, I think it’s high time something be done so that public funds are be misused,” he said.