KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 — Concerns have emerged over whether the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) took adequate steps to protect Datin Pamela Ling, a key witness who went missing on April 9 while en route to meet the agency.

Lawyer Sangeet Kaur Deo, who is representing Ling’s family, questioned whether MACC lodged a missing person’s report after Ling failed to appear at its headquarters and could not be contacted.

Ling was scheduled to assist MACC’s investigation under the MACC Act 2009 and the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001 (AMLATFPUAA), but did not show up on the appointed date.

Sangeet said MACC should have recognised that Ling, who may have had access to sensitive information, could have been vulnerable as a potential witness.

“Did MACC recognise this potential risk, and did it alert the police to this possibility at the earliest opportunity, so that appropriate lines of inquiry could be pursued (in probing her disappearance)?” she said in a statement reported in Free Malaysia Today.

“We call upon MACC to confirm that it had fully disclosed to the police, at the earliest opportunity, the nature and extent of Ling’s involvement in the money laundering probe, and whether they had reason to believe she may have been exposed to risk as a result.”

In a statement yesterday, MACC confirmed that Ling was summoned to its headquarters on April 9 but failed to attend, and that her lawyer filed a police report on the same day.

MACC said the responsibility to locate Ling now lies with the police and urged the public to avoid speculation and allow investigations to proceed.

However, Sangeet said it was imperative that MACC clarify its actions after Ling did not turn up for her interview.

She added that failure to do so raises serious questions about the agency’s protocols for protecting vulnerable witnesses in high-stakes investigations.

Yesterday, Kuala Lumpur police chief Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa said investigators have questioned 12 people over Ling’s disappearance but have not found any leads.