By Melissa Chi
April 24, 2011
SERI KEMBANGAN, April 24 — Selangor executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah again denied today DAP and his dead aide Teoh Beng Hock ever took kickbacks, an issue speculated in a royal panel investigating the death.
Teoh was called as a witness in a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) probe into alleged misuse of state funds by Ean Yong but was found dead on July 15, 2009 at the agency’s Selangor office after overnight questioning.
“I need to stress here that, the DAP branches and Teoh Beng Hock have never taken any cut or kickback from the contractors or suppliers. We have documents to prove that these are baseless accusations.
“What happened was, in many cases the DAP branch or certain party members are part of the organising team and footed some of the bills of the programmes. When we got back the claim from the district office, we then reimburse to the branch or members who have paid the bills earlier,” he told reporters here.
Teoh, 30, was the political secretary to Yong, who is also the Seri Kembangan assemblyman from the DAP, at the time of his death. An inquest turned in an open verdict, saying it was neither suicide or homicide.
Selangor DAP chairman Teresa Kok, who is also a state executive councillor, denied last month that a party branch had received a cut from payments for government projects in 2008.
Ean Yong (picture) claimed the MACC is using the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) as a platform to frame up accusations against Teoh Beng Hock and the DAP and that it is their attempt to justify their “suicide theory”.
“And they are trying very hard to confuse the people. No matter how, this will only expose their poor investigation techniques.
“It is obvious that the MACC officers that have testified in the previous inquest and present RCI have been giving misleading and contradictory statements in order to justify their unjustifiable
actions toward Teoh Beng Hock that caused his death,” he said.
He stressed that he is “closely monitoring” the royal commission of inquiry for probing the death of Teoh.
MACC lawyer Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah suggested to the RCI that Teoh was restless hours before his death as he was guilty of using government projects to fund the DAP.
Shafee also challenged businessman Lee Wye Wing to produce receipts to prove his claim that a DAP branch had paid advances for various government projects in the Seri Kembangan constituency in 2008.
He made an application for the commission to compel the 52-year-old businessman to produce the receipts.
Shafee said that three payment vouchers, which the MACC had found in Lee’s home, revealed allocations for Serdang Aman DAP, ranging from 30 to almost 90 per cent.
Some of the payments had been issued to WSK Services, which Lee said was owned by his wife.
Selangor MACC investigation unit head Hairul Ilham Hamzah testified last month that Teoh had received an allocation of RM112 in the RM1,665 payment voucher.
Shafee had said that the national DAP had also received an allocation of RM600 out of a RM1,800 payment under the Kampung Tunku constituency.
DAP’s Lau Weng San is the area’s assemblyman.