Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang today questioned why there was no action against Mara even though the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was tipped off about the alleged wrongdoing in property purchases six months earlier.

"MACC should explain whether it is true that it had received information about the corruption of Mara Inc property purchase in Melbourne last year.

"It should explain why MACC action appeared to be more of a 'cover up' instead of a 'bust up' to bring the corrupt culprits to book," said the DAP supremo in a statement today.

Lim was responding to a report by The Sun yesterday that MACC had received a tip off and initiated a "discreet investigation" six months ago into alleged irregularities in Mara's property purchases in Australia.

The matter only came to public attention earlier this week when Australia-based The Age broke the story.

The Age reported that Mara spent A$22.5 million (RM65 million) in public funds to purchase The Dudley in Melbourne.

The purchase, which among others involved a former politician, was overpriced by A$4.75 million (RM13.7 million).

RM13.7 million paid as bribes

The news report said the extra RM13.7 million paid was laundered out of Australia and paid as bribes to the Malaysian officials responsible for the purchase.

Lim question whether Mara and MACC had acted sufficiently prior to the issue becoming public when they found out about the matter six months ago.

"Would MACC and Mara continue to ignore information about corruption of Mara Inc property purchase in Melbourne if The Age had not exposed the corruption on Tuesday?" he asked.

Shortly after the issue was made public, MACC announced it was deploying its officers to Australia to probe the matter.

Mara chairperson Annuar Musa ( photo ) also submitted several documents belonging to the agency to MACC.