KUALA LUMPUR: A member of parliament proposed for the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on Tabung Haji to investigate allegations of misappropriation in the institution.
Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim (BN-Baling), who is former Tabung Haji chairman, said conducted in a transparent manner, this would answer such claims.
"Tabung Haji was established here in the Dewan (Rakyat) and not under the jurisdiction of Bank Negara.
"However, when Bank Negara sent a letter to me, I requested for a meeting with the Bank Negara governor (during tenure as Tabung Haji chairman), but was not able to do so. We asked the previous government for two years, 23 months, to set up an RCI (on Tabung Haji) but it was never heeded," he said, interrupting the debate speech on the royal address by Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
In response, Anwar said he had no objections to the suggestion, pointing out that Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was the home minister during the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.
PH had in 2018 revealed illegal dividend distributions since 2014 by Lembaga Tabung Haji, assets shrinkage of more than RM4 billion and claims of accounting irregularities.
Investigation by independent auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) revealed that TH had total assets of RM70.3 billion and RM74.4 billion in liabilities at the end of 2017, with a gap of RM4.1 billion.