Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli today questioned Majlis Amanah Rakyat's (Mara) alleged failure to recover A$4.75 million (RM14 million at current exchange rate), which has been overpaid by its wholly-owned subsidiary Thrushcross Land Holdings Limited to project developer Wanissa Properties Pty Ltd.

The amount was related to Mara’s purchase of the Dudley House student hostel in Melbourne, Australia, for A$22.5 million (RM66.7 million at current rate) in 2013.

The transaction was highlighted by Australian daily The Age in June last year.

Rafizi said that it has been eight months since he followed up on allegations that the purchase was made at “massively inflated” price.

Speaking during a press conference at the National Oversight and Whistleblower (NOW) office, he produced court documents filed in Australia which he said will show exactly how Mara could have recovered the amount from individuals named in the suit.

“The documents showed in detail how the A$4.75 million was paid by Wanissa Properties to three companies – Leuven Capital Sdn Bhd, Optimus Capital Group of Companies Sdn Bhd and TRR Heritage Sdn Bhd,” said Rafizi who noted that the companies are directly or indirectly linked to Mara.

According to the court documents released to the media, among the individuals named include the current Mara Inc Investment CEO Ahmad Nazim Abdul Rahman.

“With the current troubles faced by Mara to finance thousands of Malay and bumiputera students, I question why no actions have been taken to recover the public fund,” he said.

"I feel that actions should be taken to recover the RM14 million from individuals named (in the court documents)," said Rafizi who repeated claims that the individuals named had funnelled the A$4.75 million as kickbacks to Malaysian companies in which they have an interest.

Since the case was first reported by The Age in June last year, Mara top officials including chairperson Annuar Musa as well as Shafie Apdal, then rural and regional development minister, had insisted that all transactions were done according to procedure.

On June 24 last year, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had also ordered an investigation into the reported allegations.

Malaysiakini has contacted Mara for its response to this story.