REPORTING back after months of investigation, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah has concluded that the so-called œProject IC likely existed œat all material times, but was unsanctioned by the authorities. The report dismissed, too, any notion of political subterfuge, noting instead that financial gains were the only motivating factor of those involved, an illegal syndicate extending into the Sabah National Registration Department (NRD). This is borne by the detention of several NRD officers under the now-repealed Internal Security Act in the mid-1990s. Despite this, the integrity of NRD procedures, according to the RCI, remains intact. The criminal nature of the activity involved the falsification of information and documents given to the NRD by applicants, and no suggestion exists to indicate that procedures were compromised to achieve the objective of issuing blue ICs to those who do not, in reality, qualify.
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