KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is considering taking legal action against those irresponsible parties who have deliberately tarnished the fund’s image.
EPF, in a statement today, said the move was due to repeated attempts to harm its reputation and cast doubt on its integrity.
Recently, there was a spate of allegations on the transfer of large funds and bonds out of the EPF through fraudulent means.
“We refute these allegations and reiterate that the alleged letters and proposals are forged documents. As such, the proposal in question was never presented to the EPF and was never under consideration,” the fund said.
EPF reiterated that there had been no transfer of any funds nor bonds as alleged.
“Arising from the recent annual audit conducted by the National Audit Department, we can confirm that the bonds in question remain in the ownership of the EPF, via confirmation received from PayNet in January 2018.”
PayNet is an approved payment system operator regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia. It is also a Bank Negara subsidiary.
EPF stressed that the purported transactions had never happened, and both RHB Bank Bhd and HSBC Bank had issued statements refuting the allegations.
It reassured the public that it has a strong and robust governance framework in place to prevent fraud on its members’ funds.
“The EPF’s governance framework requires all proposals to firstly go through a stringent investment evaluation process that includes comprehensive analysis, risk assessment and due diligence by its team of experts.
“Once the proposal passes the first stage of assessment, it is then subject to rigorous deliberation by the management investment committee, which comprise senior members of the investment division as well as members of EPF’s top management.
“Only after endorsement by the committee, the proposal papers will be brought to the investment panel for further consideration before final approval,” it explained.
The panel comprises industry professionals, senior members of the EPF management, as well as representatives from Bank Negara and the government.
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