The Anti-Corruption Agency has recently asked for more powers to combat corruption. It sounds like they are really serious about wiping corruption, but many Malaysians will be sceptical as long as it remains under the Prime Minister's Department. We are still waiting for action to be taken against ministers named by Anwar Ibrahim in his police reports backed by documentary evidence.

Even as we wait - and wait in vain - a new case of alleged corruption has emerged, this time involving the biggest telecom firm in Malaysia. The French newsagency, AFP, reported on Friday that Japan's Mitsui and Co. had paid about 300 million yen (2.8 million U.S. dollars) in kickbacks to the Malaysian firm in return for its purchase of telephone switchboards.

The money was reportedly funnelled to the Malaysian side through a consultant firm in Malaysia, which turned out to be a dummy company. In a syndicate with the high-tech giant NEC Corp., Mitsui was said to have landed orders from "Telecom Malaysia" in late 1996 for the switchboards with a total capacity of about 800,000 circuits.

The Japanese syndicate reportedly won the deal, estimated at more than 10 billion yen, by outdoing a number of European rival bids. The switchboards were apparently delivered to ''Telecom Malaysia'' from 1996 to 1998.

Mitsui was said to have treated the kickbacks, paid in 1997 to the Malaysian agent under a consultant contract, as "commissions" which were construed as "losses".

We call upon the ACA to probe the AFP report and inform Malaysians of the outcome.

Specifically, Aliran would like to know:

• Which Malaysian ''consultant firm" acted as the conduit in receiving the kickbacks and who were the personalities behind this dummy company?
• Who actually received the 2.8 million dollars in kickbacks in the end?
• Was the Malaysian telecom firm's head and the rest of the telecom management aware of the commission and did they give the approval for the transaction?
• Was the Telecommunications Minister and the Cabinet aware that shady kickbacks were being paid?
• How much more did the Malaysian telecom firm - and ultimately the Malaysian consumer - have to pay as a result of selecting the Mitsui switchboards?

Meanwhile, the Telecommunications Minister should take full responsibility for this scandal. He and the telecom firm's management team owe a full explanation to the Malaysian public. We also expect the media to highlight this scandal and demand full accountability. This is their social responsibility from which they cannot run away.