Penang deputy chief minister P Ramasamy said MACC’s investigations cover the period when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in power, but not Mitra’s predecessor, the Socio-Economic Development of the Indian Community unit (Sedic), which was established by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

“Why has MACC shown little or no interest in the disbursement of funds when Sedic was in operation under the BN administration?” he said in a statement today.

Ramasamy added that there were allegations of millions of ringgit in funds meant to aid the Indian community being fraudulently disbursed to companies and individuals aligned with BN or MIC.

He said selective investigations will not bring justice to poor Indians, who had been taken for a ride by unscrupulous company directors, politicians and individuals.

He was responding to an online news report that MACC is to take nine firms to court over the misuse of RM26 million in Mitra funds for, among others, conducting floristry classes and tuition classes for primary school students.

The Malaysian Insight had reported that MACC had examined the applications for funding meant to uplift the Indian community from 2019 to this year.

The investigations into the companies found that most of the grants were misused and that more companies were being probed, the news portal said.

Ramasamy said after the PH coalition took over Putrajaya in 2018, Sedic was renamed Mitra, but the change in name was “purely cosmetic”.

“The funds meant for the targeted community were disbursed indirectly to the Indian poor, through numerous NGOs.

“This indirect disbursal of funds was the source of the problem. It gave rise to misuse and misappropriation of funds,” he added.

Mitra, like its predecessor Sedic, was previously under the prime minister’s department but has now been placed under the national unity ministry.