Masing (right) gestures at a sign during a visit to one of the booths set up in conjunction with JKR Sarawak Safety & Quality Forum. Also with him is JKR Sarawak director Datu Zuraimi Sabki (second left). – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) has not received any compound notice from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in regards to the party receiving funds from 1MDB, says its president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing.
Speaking to reporters after officiating the Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak Safety & Quality Forum Welcoming Dinner at a hotel here last night, he said the party has not paid MACC anything thus far.
“They have not asked me to pay back so why should I pay?
“So far they have not send us anything yet so let’s wait and see,” he said when asked to comment on MACC chief commissioner Latheefa Koya’s recent statement that the anti-corruption authority will take action against those who have not paid up despite compound notices issued to them for receiving funds from 1MDB.
MACC has issued compound notices to 80 individuals and entities that received money amounting to RM420 million which were believed to have originated from 1MDB.
PRS is among the political parties named in the list.
Asked if the party had strike a deal with MACC on paying the funds by instalment, Masing said the party did not do so.
“We just tell them what we are doing, that’s it. I keep my fingers crossed there’s nothing so far.”
In October last year, PRS information chief Wilson Nyabong Ijang admitted that the party had received RM1 million from former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak which was spent for political purposes before the 2013 parliamentary election.
He said the party had cooperated with MACC officers in July last year by providing them with details on where, when and how the fund was spent.
“We were honest. We gave them all the details. When your boss gives you the money for political works, you do not ask him or her where it is from. That (scenario) applies to our case.
“We even told MACC to take whatever is left from that particular fund but there was none. PRS is a poor party,” he told The Borneo Post then.
Last week, Latheefa told a press conference that the 80 individuals and companies who have not paid up the money could be charged under the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001.