PETALING JAYA: There appears to be a serious abuse of power in the issuance of “special approvals” for the admission of foreign workers into the country, the National Patriot Association (Patriot) says.
“What makes it even more serious is that a number of these special approvals were given via middlemen despite the foreign workers failing the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) inspection,“ its president Brig-Gen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Raji said in a statement today.
He also believes that such wanton disregard for health is a serious dereliction of responsibilities among those politicians in whom we put our trust for good governance.
He was responding to a recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report where PAC chairman and Bukit Bendera MP Wong Hon Wai had asked former Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi why 512,315 out of a total of 928,825 “special approvals” were issued for foreign workers between 2016 and 2018.
Authorisation of the “special approvals” to middlemen, who among others were politicians from the then ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government, raised the question of corruption, he added.
Some of the politicians reported as middlemen were Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia (former Dewan Rakyat Speaker), Tanjung Karang MP Tan Sri Noh Omar, Datuk Masir Kujat (Sri Aman MP), Datuk Seri Mohd Alwi Che Ahmad (Kok Lanas MP) and Muhammad Yusof Mohd Nor (Sungai Dua assemblyman).
“Patriot would like to ask Ahmad Zahid four additional questions, the first being why such a high percentage (55% of the total) special approvals were issued?” Arshad said.
Other questions he posed were why the foreign workers were not admitted into the country through the normal channels; the reason for appointing politicians as middlemen, and is this not cronyism?
Arshad suggested that the public could assume that all the middlemen (politicians included) had received some sort of financial gain.
Patriot is urging a thorough investigation into this matter, since the report has invoked a high probability of corruption in the issuance of these “special approvals”.
“Good governance requires the various investigating agencies to spring into action and not wait for direction from higher-ups,“ he said.
