Fresh graft claims dog Malaysia cabinet and police

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Reuters) Corruption allegations against Malaysia's government and top officials surfaced again in local newspapers today as the prime minister struggled to keep his 3-1/2-year anti-graft campaign on track.

In the latest developments, Malaysia's deputy internal security minister, himself under investigation over corruption allegations, was quoted as saying that his ministry was now ''keeping tabs'' on graft claims against the nation's police chief.

''We find the allegations very serious, but I have nothing much to comment on or what the IGP (Inspector-General of Police) should do,'' the New Straits Times quoted Deputy Internal Security Minister Mohamad Johari Baharum as saying.

''However, our disciplinary committee is keeping tabs on the allegations,'' he added.

Police chief Musa Hassan has strenuously denied allegations circulated on the Internet that he was involved in graft and was linked to crime syndicates, the New Straits Times said. He has described them publicly as slander, wild and baseless.

Musa could not be reached at his office today.

Johari too has denied anonymous Internet rumours that he accepted bribes to free three suspected criminals from jail.

yesterday, the government revealed that its anti-corruption agency had submitted a report on investigations into Johari's case to the attorney-general.

The findings have not yet been publicly released.

''I don't know what is the outcome of the investigation because the attorney-general's chambers is an independent body,'' Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, a minister in the prime minister's department, told the Bernama state news agency.

TOday, the Star newspaper also reported that a former opposition politician, who now heads an anti-corruption lobby group, had sent a dossier to the prime minister's office containing graft allegations against an unnamed cabinet minister.

A spokesman for the prime minister's office said he could not confirm receipt of the report.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi won a huge election victory in 2004 on a promise to clean up corruption. Action has since been taken against many lower-level officials, and he has raised salaries for both bureaucrats and rank-and-file police, but high-profile catches have been elusive.

In March, Abdullah declined to renew the contract of his most important anti-corruption official, Anti-Corruption Agency chief Zulkipli Mat Noor, after he too faced graft allegations.

Zulkipli denied them.

The anti-graft campaign has also been handicapped by recent judicial criticism of the handling of some of the few high-profile cases that have reached court. Early this week, a court acquitted the ex-boss of Malaysia's state-owned steel firm after it accused prosecutors of failing to make an adequate case.

Malaysia's government-friendly press has been freer to report on many politically sensitive issues under Prime Minister Abdullah, but this has created government headaches as mainstream dailies pick up on allegations normally confined to the Internet.

Malaysia's has many lively Internet blogs that often air anonymous allegations of wrongdoing against top officials.

REUTERS SV VC1025