KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian group advocating government accountability said it will make public this week a sworn affidavit showing how millions of ringgit from Prime Minister Najib Razak's personal bank accounts went to Barisan Nasional (BN) for use in the 2013 general election.
Citizens for Accountable Governance Malaysia (CAGM) said the documents will incriminate the current administration, Malaysian Insider reported.
"Once exposed, it will outline how the money came in and came out from the PM's accounts and basically how the whole thing worked," CAGM patron Md Zainal Abidin was quoted as saying. "It will join the dots and complete the puzzle," he added.
On Sunday, CAGM claimed that millions of ringgit from Najib's private accounts at AmBank in Kuala Lumpur had been channelled to BN component parties in the run-up to the 13th general election, according to the report.
The CAGM called this method of political funding a "system of greasing" ruling coalition partners and election machinery which was started by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and had allowed BN to remain in power, the Malaysian Insider reported.
"CAGM can confirm, based on court documents in our hands, that millions from Najib's AmBank accounts were actually used to 'back up' BN component parties in the run-up to the 2013 general elections," the news portal quoted Zainal as saying on Sunday.
He claimed that BN parties were each allocated an average of RM30 million to RM50 million (S$11 million to S$19 million), with funds also channelled to more than a dozen BN-friendly parties and non-governmental organisations, each getting between RM1 million and RM8 million.
Zainal said the sworn affidavit was part of court documents filed by a person from the banking industry in a suit over another matter at the Kuala Lumpur High Court. Zainal reportedly said he had permission to reveal the sworn statement.
An unprecedented high-level probe is underway into the now-closed accounts of Najib after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) newspaper reported two weeks ago that nearly US$700 million (S$950 million) was transferred into his accounts at AmBank, Malaysia's fifth largest lender.
The funds are suspected to have originated from state investor 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
