Nepali worker issue: Ahmad Zahid says ready to be investigated by MACC
KUALA LUMPUR: Former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi says he is ready to face the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation over allegations his family members had profited from the trafficking of Nepali migrant workers.
"I am ready to be investigated and show evidence that I was not involved or had abused my power or that any of my family members were involved," he told reporters at Parliament lobby on Monday (July 23).
Dr Ahmad Zahid was responding to claims in a report by Nepali Times that high ranking politicians in Nepal and former Malaysian officials and their family members were involved in looting more than RM185mil over the past five years from vulnerable Nepali migrant workers desperate to seek work in Malaysia.
The reported stated that Dr Ahmad Zahid, who was also the Home Minister then, had outsourced a private company, Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd, which required Nepali migrant workers to apply for work visas through a Kathmandu-based affiliate, Malaysia VLN Nepal.
The agency charged RM118 (Rs3,200) from every Malaysia-bound Nepali worker, and collected RM72mil (Rs1.95bil) from more than 600,000 workers between September 2013 and April 2018.
This included making it mandatory for all Nepali migrants to undergo a biometric health screening test via Bestinet Sdn Bhd, a company run by Dr Ahmad Zahid's brother-in-law Amin Abdul Nor.
The report also claimed that Dr Ahmad Zahid's brother Abdul Hakim Hamidi and former Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tan Sri Azmi Khalid also reportedly owned shares in Bestinet.
Asked on his family links to Bestinet, Dr Ahmad Zahid said that none of his sisters or family members were involved.
"I am not involved and it's not mine.
"It belongs to a Bangladeshi," he claimed.
He denied having a brother-in-law named Amin or having any shares in Bestinet, and said the company had been in business before he assumed the post of Home Minister.
He added that he was not afraid of being investigated by the MACC.
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