PETALING JAYA: The Attorney General's Chambers under the previous Barisan Nasional administration had terminated graft investigations involving Sarawak Governor Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud.

According to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had conducted several investigations on the former Sarawak chief minister.

"All findings of the investigation were referred to the AGC. After going through the evidence, the AGC decided to close all investigation papers on this issue in 2013," he said in a parliamentary written reply on Thursday (July 19).

Liew was responding to Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Yuen (PH–Bandar Kuching), who asked the Prime Minister to state whether the MACC would start investigations against Taib over multiple graft and power abuse accusations.

The AG at the time was Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, who is now part of the special task force probing the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) corruption scandal.

Calls to investigate Taib have been echoed by several groups, including Switzerland-based Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), which said it is willing to share evidence of corrupt practices by Taib.

Under its Stop Timber Corruption campaign, BMF has since 2011 identified over 400 companies in 25 jurisdictions with links to the Taib family.

On June 29, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that action could not be taken against Taib over alleged corrupt acts because no formal complaint had been lodged with the MACC.

On July 3, MACC chief commissioner Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull said that 15 investigation files had been opened against Taib since 2015.

However, Shukri said that no action could be taken against Taib unless new information surfaced as investigations showed that Taib did not chair any meetings or make decisions on certain projects.