KUCHING: Owners of companies whose accounts were frozen in the recent Operation Gergaji may have their accounts unfrozen by making a trip to the local Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office.
According to a spokesperson of MACC, this applies to all the affected businessmen in Sarawak and Sabah.
“Those whose accounts are frozen can go to MACC office in Sarawak or Sabah. There is a procedure set down by MACC which they will have to go through. Once that is done and MACC feels that there is justification for their accounts to be unfrozen, we will do it,” the spokesperson told The Borneo Post.
He said it was normal practice for MACC to freeze accounts, which was done under the provisions of the law to assist MACC in its investigation.
Operation Gergaji, which took place recently, saw a total of 519 company or individual accounts containing as much as RM700 million frozen.
The operation was a collaborative effort by the police, General Operations Force, state Forestry Department and Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to combat illegal logging and corruption related to illegal logging and tax evasion.
The freezing of the accounts of the timber companies not only affected the cash flow of these companies directly but had also affected all their subsidiaries that are not timber related, such as their hotel and supermarket businesses.
According to a reader of The Borneo Post, a hotel outlet of an affected timber company presently carries its business only on cash terms as it cannot accept any credit or debit payment after its accounts were frozen.
Apart from that, some businessmen whose companies are not timber related, found their accounts frozen which took them by surprise.
And according to a reliable source, the accounts might have been frozen due to suspicion of tax evasion.
As at press time, The Borneo Post has yet to receive confirmation from IRB whether freezing the accounts of business persons suspected of tax evasion without any charge was a drastic action on the board’s part.
Meanwhile, on the recent report published by a national daily that nine high ranking officers, including a director, from various government agencies in Sarawak had been called by MACC to help in an investigation involving RM10 million, the MACC spokesperson said no one had been called and MACC was still uncertain of the number of officers involved.
“We did not issue any public statement on that and we don’t know who the newspaper is quoting,” said the spokesperson.