Mohd Shukri Abdull believes that he has placed MACC on the right track during his tenure as its chief commissioner.

"My mission has been accomplished," he told Malaysiakini in a text message when queried on his reasons for stepping down this evening.

"I have placed MACC on the right track. All officers are united (in battling corruption) and support from the public has been strong,” he added.

However, Shukri declined to comment on his successor, former Lawyers for Liberty executive director Latheefa Koya.

Earlier today, the Prime Minister's Office announced that Shukri decided to cut short his contract which is slated to expire in May next year.

In a surprise move, the PMO said Latheefa would succeed him as chief commissioner.

Shukri was appointed to head the MACC last May, shortly after Pakatan Harapan won the 14th general election.

In a press conference soon after, he broke down when he recounted his time running away from Malaysian authorities to the United States.

This was after his former boss Abu Kassim Mohamed (right in photo) decided to indict former premier Najib Abdul Razak over the RM2.6 billion found in the latter's bank accounts.

Shukri said when Abu Kassim asked him if he was prepared to face the consequences of taking action against a sitting prime minister, he replied that he was willing to take the risk in order to serve the country.

However, he claimed that on the day Abu Kassim wanted to charge Najib, the then attorney general Abdul Gani Patail was removed from his position, and this was followed by a cabinet reshuffle.

Amid this, Shukri left for Washington on July 31, 2015, to raise the 1MDB issue, but had deliberately released misleading information that he was headed to Saudi Arabia.

According to him, there were people waiting to arrest him in Jeddah, and he was tailed in Washington.

Shukri first joined the then-Anti-Corruption Agency in 1984 as an investigations officer after graduating from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

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