A recently formed anti-corruption watchdog today lodged a police report against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad for alleged corruption.

The Democratic and Anti-Corruption Movement (Gerak) also attached 17-pages of documents to support its report. These included reports from government agencies and letters from the Finance Ministry.

"Based on the facts we have compiled, we have strong basis to believe that both these leaders have abused their power by rewarding government projects worth hundreds of millions of ringgit to family members and relatives," said Gerak chairperson Mohamad Ezam Mohd Nor.

"We believe that an investigation must be carried out considering the period that both leaders have ruled is more than 25 years ... there is a high probability that many incidences of corruption have occurred during that period but have not been exposed," he added.

Mahathir served as prime minister from 1982 to 2003, after which Abdullah took over.

The police report was lodged at the Dang Wangi police station this afternoon.

In a statement later, Ezam said was ironic that both the leaders were now accusing each other of granting government contracts to their children.

Getting rich quickly

For the past five months Mahathir has been highly critical of Abdullah's leadership. He continuously accused Abdullah of economic mismanagement, corruption and nepotism.

His main grouse has been the special business concessions given by the government to Abdullah's son Kamaluddin.

Last week Abdullah retorted by saying that Mahathir's children had been given bigger business contracts during the latter's tenure.

Ezam today noted that Kamaluddin has "amassed great profits within a short period".

"His wealth has increased multi-fold ever since Abdullah became the country's number one political leader, and this has created that perception that his wealth was a direct result of Abdullah's influence."

Ezam urged the police to conduct an immediate and thorough investigation to ensure that the "economic crime" does not continue.

".... (there is a) need to save the hundreds of millions of ringgits of the rakyat's money from being taken away and squandered by a group of individuals who are close to the corridors of power," he added.