PETALING JAYA: Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (pic) has denied allegations that there were elements of corruption involving the flood mitigation project meant to address the issue nationwide.
He said the claim that the project had ballooned to RM16.6bil and involved companies and unknown individuals that received commissions as proxies for the minister, was baseless and malicious.
Nik Nazmi added that the Finance Ministry allocated RM11.8bil for 33 flood mitigation projects, and the amount had not hit RM16.6bil as alleged by Bersatu Information committee member Badrul Hisham Shaharin, better known as Chegubard.
"This is not the first time that Chegubard has come up with wild baseless accusations.
"He has also lost several lawsuits because what he said was proven as slander.
"Similarly, Chegubard’s accusations ... show his lack of understanding of the procurement process and government budget allocation procedures," he said in a statement on Thursday (Dec 21).
Badrul Hisham had claimed serious occurrences of corruption in the flood mitigation project and urged police to investigate.
He also lodged a police report on Wednesday (Dec 20).
He further alleged that a company registered to deal in cosmetics doubled as a flood mitigation consultant to siphon millions from the project.
Among the other claims he made was that several law firms in Klang and Batang Kali allegedly "laundered" kickbacks from companies that had been awarded flood mitigation works.
Nik Nazmi said the allegations were defamatory and that he will take legal action against the Opposition politician soon.
"Almost all such projects this year are still going through the tender process, while 19 have had Letters of Acceptance issued.
"There has been no allocation for development expenditure.
"Additionally, government flood mitigation projects undergo a transparent procurement process involving the Finance Ministry as well as the procurement board (in) which I am not personally involved," the minister added.
