Visit Malaysia Year scandal exposed
Malaysiakini…. the independent news portal had exposed another Malaysian scandal, this time involving the Tourism Ministry. The Ministry officials that are suppposed to maintain Malaysia’s good name in the worldwide tourism industry had instead brought shame to this beloved nation we call Malaysia.
The ambitious Visit Malaysia Year campaign introduced by the Malaysian Government involves a lot of public money and provides lucrative business opportunities for travel-related companies lucky enough to be selected in promoting the program. That is OK as long as the companies involve in legitimate business deals promoting Malaysian tourism.
The Korean chapter of the Visit Malaysia Year campaign however had been linked with scandalous and dubious business transactions purportedly done by the officials of the Tourism Ministry itself, as claimed by Malaysiakini in its latest report “Visit Malaysia Year - - The Korean Scandal”.
Sources are accusing director of Tourism Malaysia (TM) Seoul Abdul Mutalib Awang and TM North Asian regional director Ramzi Abu Yazid of abuse of power and embezzlement.
The sources also furnished Malaysiakini with documents to show that both Mutalib and Ramzi are allegedly transferring funds meant for promoting Malaysia as a holiday destination to South Koreans into their own pockets.
And how did they do it? According to the sources, the modus operandi was simple.
Sometime early last year, Ramzi suggested that TM South Korea produce a video containing shots of tourist attractions in Malaysia to be used for promotional purposes.
Mutalib agreed and subsequently announced that the tender for the video production would be opened for bidding. The tender was later awarded to South Korean-based Sekyung Communications Co Ltd.
Payment to Sekyung Communication was made after obtaining approval from Mutalib via bank transfer. It is alleged that Ramzi and another Malaysian-based graphic designer would ‘pick up the money’ and transfer the sum to a bank in Malaysia.
Sources alleged that Sekyung is actually a “bogus” company set up by Mutalib through several of his Korean friends.
A check with the Korean Tax Office, a public body that has information on all registered South Korean companies, showed that the company existed merely in name.
TM Seoul’s intention of producing the promotional video also came under scrutiny by the TM headquarters in Malaysia, where an ad hoc committee set up to study the video production found that the quotation papers submitted by Sekyung lacked the necessary details.
The TM headquarters, in a letter to TM Seoul dated Aug 5, demanded an explanation from Mutalib and Ramli regarding three issues:
- Why the quotation papers issued by Sekyung did not include in detail the scope of work required for the video production and that one of the documents had the letterhead of TM Seoul printed on the back?
- Why was the cost of the video production so exorbitant?
- The scope of work mentioned in the documents issued by Sekyung did not indicate that the company has any experience in video production.
So far so good…. but is there any action taken against the persons involved?
“But so far we have learnt that no action has been taken against them. What was even more shocking was that Ramzi got promoted!” said the sources
In Malaysia the Bolehland, any scandal is not complete without any high ranking politian implicated as well…..
Meanwhile, the sources also implicated Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor in the alleged scandal. They claimed that he was aware of the irregularities but chose not to act.
“We were shocked when staff from TM Seoul confirmed that Tengku Adnan and his family went for a ski trip with Mutalib’s family when the former visited South Korea a few weeks ago despite knowing about the serious allegations of corruption against Mutalib,” alleged the sources.
[tags]Visit Malaysia Year, Tourism Ministry, Korea, Tengku Adnan[/tags]
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