Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel (CCPP) chairman Borhan Dolah said the email, sent by economics lecturer Edmund Terence Gomez, only requested for a meeting to discuss efforts to restore MACC’s image.

According to Borhan, Gomez, who resigned yesterday as an advisory panel member, expressed concern in the email about MACC and asked for an immediate CCPP meeting to discuss ways to support the enforcement agency.

He said that upon receiving the email, he replied that he would consider the matter and contact the MACC secretariat for input on the issue because “it was out of CCPP’s jurisdiction”.

“Suddenly, he (Gomez) resigned and raised the issue as if CCPP did not care about the alleged misconduct of the MACC chief commissioner,” Borhan told Berita Harian yesterday.

“While he raised other matters for a meeting, he did not touch on the issue of the misconduct he alleged when he resigned.”

Gomez reportedly resigned as a member of CCPP after claiming that the committee had failed to discuss reports involving senior MACC officials.

In his resignation letter, Gomez said questions arose over the “relationship between the business and the enforcement authorities”, and the “conflict of interest” involving senior MACC officials and allegations of shares ownership.

Borhan, a former director-general of the public service department, said Gomez should understand that the duties of CCPP was to work with MACC to implement community programmes on anti-corruption awareness.

He said Gomez should have reported to the director-general of public service, Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman, if he had found evidence of misconduct by Azam rather than ask CCPP to take action.

“In fact, apart from CCPP, there are several other responsible parties created to act as a check and balance for MACC, such as the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board (ACAB), chaired by Abu Zahar Ujang, and the Special Committee on Corruption (SCC),” Borhan said.