KUALA LUMPUR: Ten companies are expected to be charged soon over the alleged misappropriation of Malaysian Indian Community Transformation Unit (Mitra) funds, says the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

       It said the probe of the 10 companies is almost completed.

       "We will suggest to the deputy public prosecutor for them to be charged soon. The rest are still ongoing," MACC chief commissioner Tan Sri Azam Baki said after officiating an anti-corruption campaign at the Muzium Negara MRT station here on Monday (Nov 22).

       “We are also looking at the systems and procedures used to give out the grants and in our opinion there were several holes within it. This is another area we have to look into,” he added.

       He said all reports submitted by companies that received Mitra grants had to be scrutinised.

       “We have to check one by one. For example, if a company is given a grant to buy cows, we will have to check if the cows were actually bought, where the purchase was made, and so on. That is just one company. Investigations are ongoing,” he said.

       It was reported that the MACC is reviewing all applications, expenditure reports and programmes said to have been implemented by recipients of Mitra allocations from 2019 to date.

       This follows the arrest of several company directors on suspicion of being involved in the misappropriation of Mitra funds.