IGP Denies Allegations That He Used PDRM Funds For His Daughter's "Lavish" Wedding
Sarawak Report has asked Mohamad Fuzi Harun to reveal who paid the bill.
By Sadho Ram — 14 Jul 2018, 01:23 PM
Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohamad Fuzi Harun has denied using the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) funds for his daughter's wedding, as alleged by Sarawak Report in its article on 12 July
According to IGP Fuzi, he had used his own money for the wedding including footing the bill for the expenses of the Brunei police chief who was a guest at the wedding.
"When invitations were sent to my counterparts, it was understood that I would personally foot the bill. In fact, only my counterpart from Brunei attended the wedding," the IGP was quoted as telling The Star Online.
"In no way were funds from the government or PDRM used to pay for the wedding or travel expenses of my guests," Fuzi added.
While calling the article "widely inaccurate", Fuzi invited the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the claims
"I am close to retirement and have more than enough savings to spend for my daughter's wedding. Why would I resort to such dubious means for my own daughter's wedding? I have nothing to hide," The Star Online quoted the IGP as saying.
Fuzi also claimed that the Sarawak Report article was inaccurate in many ways. However, the top cop didn't give any specific details except the part that mentioned his wife, who passed away in December, reported the English daily.
In its article on 12 July, Sarawak Report had asked the IGP to "make a clear statement as to just who agreed to pay for the attendance of a swathe of Asia's top cops invited to his daughter's wedding?"
"The wedding itself was by various accounts lavish, but perhaps a career at the top of Special Branch and the PDRM enables sufficient savings to be made.
"What is provoking questions is a series of invitations that are understood to have been sent out to several of the IGP's most senior counterparts in South East Asia from his official headquarters in Bukit Aman," Sarawak Report said in its article, highlighting the date, 6 April 2018, a month before GE14, when the invitation email was sent.
The investigative website, while highlighting how it's outside the normal rules for an official staff to be employed to send wedding invitations, had asked IGP Fuzi to make proof of payments public
Here's an unedited excerpt from Sarawak Report's article:
"Plainly, it is unusual and outside the normal rules for official staff (the Chief of International Relations, IGP’s Secretariat, Goh Boon Keng, signed off the letter) to be employed to extend such invitations to a private family event.
"However, the correspondence appears to have gone further still in that it states that "we" will provide Business Class return tickets for the police chief and his spouse, as well as a night in the swanky hotel.
"Given that the sender of the letter is the Royal Malaysia Police there is a strong implication that the police force and not its boss would be footing the bill. This would appear to be an extremely poor example to be setting for people lower in the ranks in terms of misdirecting funds.
"So can IGP Fuzi, detail how many top foreign cops were invited to this family wedding; how many attended; how much each cost to entertain and who paid? Naturally, proof of payments should also be made public. We hope it was a happy wedding."
Meanwhile, Sarawak Report highlighted how the IGP, despite claiming the report was "inaccurate in many ways", has failed to identify any substantive inaccuracy in the article except for one minor typo suggesting the invitation came from Fuzi and his wife
Here's a screenshot of the comment from Sarawak Report in response to IGP Fuzi:
