He said it is now a necessity to keep tabs on issues raised on social media. Previously, enforcement agencies had not paid much attention to it.

He said MACC operates differently from the police as the commission does not need to wait for an official report to investigate matters involving public funds.

“We can act on reports from other sources, even from social media, as long as there is certain information that merits us carrying out an investigation,” Sinar Harian quoted him as saying after opening the MACC Keningau branch in Sabah today.

“We need to analyse whether the information is useful or not for us to act on. Sometimes we act on them, sometimes we don’t,” he said.

He noted that MACC’s investigation into Fashion Valet Sdn Bhd was based on a written parliamentary reply which touched on complaints received from the public.

Fashion Valet co-founders Vivy Yusof and Fadzaruddin Shah Anuar are under investigation over the loss of a RM43.9 million investment by Khazanah Nasional and Permodalan Nasional (PNB) after the company was sold to an investment holding company last year.

Azam previously said MACC is looking into Fashion Valet’s performance and accounts from 2018 to 2023, including questions of whether the company sustained losses or not.

Azam said MACC has detected several suspicious transactions while reviewing documents obtained during its investigation into Fashion Valet. He also said MACC will investigate whether Khazanah and PNB knew of the losses involving the company.