Watchdog: “It is not acceptable”
The Sarawak Report, a whistleblower website based in the UK, is calling out Malaysian police officers for taking a “lavish overseas trip” to Turkey, funded by a private gaming firm.
According to GGRAsia, the whistleblower alleges that the firm hosted a delegation of 18 law enforcement officers and picked up the RM300,000 (US$73,500) tab. The trip was ostensibly to help officers learn how to combat illegal online gambling.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng acknowledged that, while the trip was OK’d by the Finance Ministry, the money to pay for it did not come from the government.
“The source of funding is not the Finance Ministry. “The source of funding is Da Ma Cai, a number forecasting company,” Lim told local reporters last week.
Malaysia’s independent watchdog, Transparency International Malaysia, also came out against the trip, saying private companies should not underwrite such activities. “It is not acceptable, regardless of whether the junket trip or working trip is sponsored by Da Ma Cai, Sime Darby or Resorts World,” said TI-M President Akhbar Satar. “A federal government agency, more so the police, must refrain from such trips sponsored by a private company, especially when the trip could well expose the police to allegations of corrupt practices and accepting gratification.”
