Corruption watchdog C4 has launched a website that allows the public to lodge reports regarding public figures living beyond their means. 

Through the website, Kleptocrazy.my, users can post photos and video evidence to back up their allegations against the public figures and their families.

C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel said they will then cooperate with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to see if there is a valid case warranting investigation. 

"We want to link up your efforts as a citizen reporter to how MACC can act on it. 

"There is nothing wrong with being rich, it is only wrong if its through illicit means. 

"We are not targeting individuals or on a personal vendetta, just those in public office and are made to account as to how they became so rich," Gabriel said at the website's launch in Petaling Jaya last night. 

To prevent abuse, she said a moderator will be vetting the reports made for the first several months of the website's operation. 

Members of the public who make the report can opt for anonymity, in an effort to protect whistle-blowers. 

The website is part of a larger push by C4 for greater transparency in the country, with hopes that there will eventually be legislature to compel politicians and public figures to declare their assets. 

The Kleptocrazy.my website currently has several reports - which were made pre-launch - against Umno and PAS figures over allegedly questionable purchase of assets such as properties and cars. 

One of the reports is regarding a London property purchased by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's stepson Riza Aziz. 

The London property is one of several assets that the US Department of Justice claimed was purchased using funds allegedly misappropriated from 1MDB. 

Meanwhile in a forum following the launch, veteran journalist R Nadeswaran shared how former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had shown him and another journalist, a draft for what is now the MACC Act. 

"In this draft there was a clause, that said that living beyond your declared income was an offence," Nadeswaran (photo) said. 

He said Abdullah had tasked him with trying to convince the opposition to support the bill. 

However, he said when the bill was tabled in Parliament, the clause about living beyond your means was removed. 

He claimed that Abdullah's aides had told him that Umno leaders had pressured the then-premier to remove the clause. 

"If that clause was in the Act today, several ministers would be in jail," said Nadeswaran.