The Tourism Ministry is convinced that its two officers allegedly involved in a scam in South Korea did not do anything that was against ministry procedure.

Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said an internal probe carried out by his ministry showed that there were no irregularities on the conduct of the two officers.

“They (those conducting the internal investigations) have given the report and it looks like the two officers had adhered to procedure.

“But since a report had already been made, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) has to investigate. There are two or three issues that are still unclear and this will be investigated by the agency,” said Tengku Adnan, according to the Star today.

Tengku Adnan said his ministry had conducted an internal probe to determine the veracity of the accusations and also to provide information to the ACA.

He also said that one of the two officers was now in Kuala Lumpur but was not given any duty while the other would return from Seoul.

Minister denies involvement

On Jan 11 Malaysiakini reported on how about RM850,000 of public funds were allegedly misused by the two officers.

The money was for producing Tourism Malaysia (TM) promotional video, but the tender for the video production was given to an allegedly bogus company run by friends of the two officers.

In Malaysiakini ’s earlier report, sources had furnished documentary evidence of their allegations against TM Seoul office director Abdul Mutalib Awang and TM North Asian regional director Ramzi Abu Yazid.

Tengku Adnan was also implicated in the scandal but the minister has denied any involvement.

The sources claim that early last year, Ramzi had suggested TM Seoul office to produce a promotional video of Malaysian tourist attractions.

Allegedly, Mutalib agreed and the project was tendered to one Sekyung Communications Co Ltd, allegedly established by his South Korean friends.

It was alleged that Ramzi and another Malaysian-based graphic designer would pick up the money and transfer it back to Malaysia.

Opposition party DAP has also lodged a report over the scandal and yesterday submitted fresh material to the police to assist them in the investigation.