Thursday, January 21, 2016

Najib must come clean over latest exposé that he spent at least RM3.3 million of personal expenses on SRC International corporate credit cards

We already know that the Ministry of Finance subsidiary, SRC International, is currently being investigated for transferring RM42 million into the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Razak’s personal account. This allegation has already been acknowledged by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) when the scandal was exposed 6 months ago by The Wall Street Journal and the Sarawak Report.

The severity of the action led the Attorney-General's office to draft charge sheets against Dato’ Seri Najib Razak for graft or criminal breach of trust.  As a result, the Attorney-General then, Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Patail, has since been unceremoniously replaced, and to this day Dato’ Seri Najib Razak has failed to provide Malaysians with any explanation as to how the money ended up in his personal account.

The Sarawak Report published its latest explosive exposé yesterday which alleged that SRC International has also generously provided the Prime Minister, and/or his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor with corporate credit cards.



According to the Sarawak Report, two cards involved were a Visa card issued by CIMB (No: 4585 8180 0000 5496) on which RM449,000 was spent and a Master Card issued by Maybank (No: 5289 4380 0003 8961) on which RM2.8 million was spent in the course of the month of August in 2014.

The total sum of approximately RM3.3 million were spent on items which included hotels, meals, jewellery purchases, and other personal luxury expenditures in the South of Europe, including Italy and Monaco during the month.

The Sarawak Report further alleges that these documents have already been provided by the MACC to the Attorney-General for prosecution.

With the information now circulating in the public, it is imperative for the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak to immediately clarify the above transactions to show that he “never used public funds for personal gains”. Failing to do so will further scandalise his already tainted reputation for failing to properly explain the RM42 million transfer of funds to his personal account.

The RM42 million is, of course, on top of the exceedingly dodgy donation of US$681 million from some mysterious person of the Arab world, which also has yet to be properly explained by Dato’ Seri Najib Razak.

The irony could not be greater when Dato’ Seri Najib advised his ministers to ensure that their respective ministries exercise prudent spending in the wake of a weak and uncertain global economy during the first Cabinet meeting held this year.

Prudence and good governance must start from the top. Dato’ Seri Najib Razak must prove that he practices the exact same principles of prudence and accountability before he can expect any of his Ministers to follow suit.

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