The MACC looks forward to an amendment to its governing act that will confer powers on the anti-graft body to go beyond proxies and investigate the real owners of companies.

Its chief Latheefa Koya said today that the matter has actually been taken up by the government themselves and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has announced part of the initiative and hopedthat it will be reflected in the government soon.

In January this year, Mahathir had expressed Putrajaya’s intention to amend the MACC Act 2009 to compel businesses to be transparent about who their beneficial owners were.

The beneficial owner of a company is the person who ultimately owns the firm and receives profits from it, and on whose behalf transactions are conducted for.