Purchase of Melbourne property followed procedures, says MARA chairman

Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) today said the purchase of the Dudley International House in Melbourne, Australia by its subsidiary, Mara Incorporated Sdn Bhd (Mara Inc) followed procedures and guidelines set by the Finance Ministry.

Mara Chairman Tan Sri Annuar Musa said the procedure includes a final approval by the Finance Ministry or the Economic Council (EC) which is chaired by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

“The Prime Minister’s approval is part of the procedure.

“As soon as the proposal for purchase was approved by the Rural and Regional Development Ministry and the Finance Ministry, it approved by the Economic Council,” said Annuar during a press conference held at the Mara building here, today.

Annuar also said Mara had begun investigating Mara Inc. through its internal audit unit and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) two months ago.

He explained that the investigations were conducted following discovery that some of Mara’s subsidiaries including Mara Inc, did not adhere to certain regulations.

As such, he said even before the exposé by Australian newspaper The Age on the purchase of the Dudley International House, investigations, although not specific to the deal, have begun.

The report now only provided Mara with additional information to be looked into.

Australian newspaper The Age has reported that a high ranking MARA official, a senior official of the government-linked company and a former politician had spent millions of government funds to buy an apartment block in Melbourne and had received kickbacks involving the purchase.

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The newspaper had reported that "a group of very rich Malaysians" had overpaid A$4.75 million (RM13.8 million) for the apartment block in the Australian city.

The trio are alleged to have asked for the price of the building known as Dudley International House to be marked up from A$17.8 million to A$22.5 million(RM65.3 million), with the difference to be their "cut".

Dudley International House was bought to serve as a hostel for MARA students in Melbourne.

The five-storey building in the East Caulfield suburb is currently accommodating 115 MARA students who are studying at Monash University.