Did Azam Baki breach beneficial ownership rules, asks anti-graft advocate

KUALA LUMPUR – Did Tan Sri Azam Baki breach beneficial ownership rules when he allowed his brother to use his trading account to deal in shares?

This is the pressing question following the embattled chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)’s revelation that his brother Nasir Baki was trading in shares while using Azam’s account.

Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism founding director Cynthia Gabriel said as the agency develops beneficial ownership rules, Azam cannot be perceived to be breaching the same rules he is enforcing.

Referring to Section 25 of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991, Gabriel pointed out that the Act stipulates no person may deal in deposited securities without first having a securities account.

“It also states that the securities account must be in the name of the beneficial owner,” she said.

“So is Azam Baki the beneficial owner?”

If it is the brother’s account, then why does Azam Baki’s name keep appearing on the shareholding of other companies?

Azam was listed as a shareholder of Gets Global Berhad as at April 30, 2015, where he held 1.9 million shares; as well as 1.029 million shares as of March 31, 2016.

He also held 2.15 million warrants in Excel Force MSC Berhad from March 2016.

“There are several unanswered questions. He said he had declared the ownership to a superior but we don’t know who the superior is and what the explanation was.

“The source of the money needs to be ascertained, too,” she said.

Gabriel said the MACC is facing a crisis of confidence following the scrutiny of the chief commissioner’s pecuniary interest.

She added that the explanation given by Azam is insufficient and his stand that he only answers to the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (LPPR) cannot be accepted.

“Even then, the ‘explanation’ should have been given earlier in the spirit of transparency that the MACC promotes,” she said, adding that an independent probe is needed to verify what Azam told LPPR.

“An internal inquiry is insufficient as even the advisory board has lost a lot of its integrity following the latest debacle,” she told The Vibes.

Saying that enlisting a Royal Commission of Inquiry or a Parliamentary Select Committee would be the only ways to get to the bottom of this issue, Gabriel called on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob to lead efforts to return MACC’s lost integrity.

“This must be led by the prime minister himself. He needs to respond and redeem the integrity of the institution,” she added. – The Vibes, January 6, 2022