KLANG, MALAYSIA - A former ally of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is backing Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin's call to investigate allegations that the PKR adviser has RM3bil in cash stashed away.

Umno Youth exco member Lokman Adam said it was crucial for the investigations to be initiated given that Anwar was currently propagating transparency.

"He is also promoting good governance and so it is timely for the authorities to investigate him," said Lokman.

Khairy issued a media statement on Tuesday, saying that the allegation about Anwar's RM3bil($1.2billion) kept in several master accounts must be probed as a statutory declaration had been made.

The allegation through the controversial statutory declaration was made by former Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid in 1999, which he later retracted.

Abdul Murad, who alleged that Anwar had money totalling RM3bil, had later retracted the statutory declaration for unknown reasons.

Anwar had denied the allegation in 1999.

Khairy had also said Umno Youth would be lodging a police report regarding the matter.

Lokman, a former PKR founding member and party youth secretary, alleged that Anwar had never practised what he has been preaching now.

"He is saying there should no longer be any direct negotiations and contracts must all be awarded through open tenders, but when Anwar was finance minister, he awarded 15 contractors jobs valued at RM1bil each.

"This fact was revealed by none other than one of his former confidantes, Ezam Mohd Nor," Lokman claimed.

He also alleged Abdul Murad, who was a close friend of Anwar, must have made the statutory declaration due to some dissatisfaction but retracted it after the issue between them had been settled.

Meanwhile, former MIC Youth chief S. A. Vigneswaran lodged a police report in Putrajaya yesterday over Anwar's alleged RM3bil.