KUALA LUMPUR – Fahmi Fadzil (Lembah Pantai-PH) wants authorities to investigate Digital Nasional Bhd’s (DNB) 5G network deal with Swedish telecommunications firm Ericsson over possible corruption.
This after it was revealed through media reports that the United States’ Justice Department (DoJ) is probing Ericsson over years of alleged corruption in several countries.
Speaking in Parliament, Fahmi said the allegations against the communications firm are huge as they involve its global business activities, and also considering that DNB signed an agreement with the company July last year to be its 5G network equipment provider.
“I urge the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to conduct a full probe into the matter.
“Were there elements of corruption in the issuance of the contract to Ericsson?” he said when debating the royal address today.
“This reminds us of the issue of 1MDB, where we had Goldman Sachs involved then. Do we want to see a similar situation with DNB? We need to avoid Ericsson being like (Goldman Sachs).”
Apart from MACC, Fahmi also called on the Public Accounts Committee to conduct a full audit of DNB and to scrutinise its deal with Ericsson.
Earlier today, Reuters reported Ericsson as saying that the DoJ is accusing it of breaking the terms of a 2019 deal with prosecutors by failing to properly disclose misconduct and compliance failures in Iraq.
The report said Ericsson failed to make sufficient disclosures before entering a deferred prosecution agreement in 2019 with the DoJ to resolve a probe into years of alleged corruption in China, Vietnam, and Djibouti.
Separately, Fahmi questioned how DNB, a special purpose vehicle under the Finance Ministry, is able to spend lavishly on advertisements, travelling, and office rental when the firm has yet to collect any revenue.
“I want an explanation from MoF: up to today, how much of the rakyat’s money has been injected into DNB? How much is spent on advertising? We see a lot of this in newspapers, social media.
“How much is being spent to rent a luxurious office, understood to be at the Tun Razak Exchange? And how much was spent to send 17 staff to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 28 until today?
“This is a huge amount. The question is: how is it able to spend so much when it is not earning anything yet?” – The Vibes, March 3, 2022
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