PETALING JAYA: The Retirement Fund (Incorporated) (KWAP)'s investment in Indonesian aquaculture technology company eFishery will not affect the payment of civil service pensions or the fund's financial position, says Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
Responding to claims circulating online, the senior political advisor to the Prime Minister and also chairman of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) said the amount invested in eFishery was RM163mil, not RM200mil as alleged.
He said the investment represented less than 0.1% of KWAP's RM195bil fund as at 2025, and less than 1% of the fund's approximately RM18bil investment income recorded in its latest audited financial year.
"As such, the eFishery case does not have a significant impact on KWAP's financial position or its ability to continue helping the government bear pension costs," he said in a Facebook post and accompanying video on Monday (July 20).
Tengku Zafrul said KWAP invested RM163mil for a 2.51% stake in eFishery when the Indonesian startup was valued at about US$1.4bil (RM5.6bil).
He said KWAP was a minority investor alongside several international institutional investors, including Singapore's Temasek, Japan's SoftBank, Indonesia-based Northstar and Abu Dhabi's 42X Fund.
According to Tengku Zafrul, investigations later found that eFishery's management had falsified its financial statements over several years, resulting in investors making decisions based on manipulated financial information.
Addressing questions over whether KWAP had carried out sufficient due diligence, he said the investment proposal had been evaluated by KWAP's investment team before being approved by its investment panel.
However, he said the fraud was sophisticated enough that several major international investors were also deceived.
Tengku Zafrul said KWAP has since completed a comprehensive internal review and is pursuing all available avenues to recover as much of the investment as possible.
He said the fund has also strengthened its investment framework through broader portfolio diversification, greater co-investments with experienced fund managers and enhanced post-investment monitoring.
Explaining the impact on pension payments, Tengku Zafrul said KWAP differs from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) because civil servants do not maintain individual savings accounts with the fund.
Instead, he said, the government remains responsible for paying civil service pensions, while KWAP manages the payments on the government's behalf and helps finance part of the pension obligations through its investment returns.
"Whatever happens with eFishery, the government's responsibility to pay civil service pensions remains unchanged," he said.
Nevertheless, Tengku Zafrul noted that the RM163mil involved remained public money and every effort must be made to recover it.
"Being small relative to the overall fund does not mean it can be ignored. Every sen that can be recovered must be pursued," he said.
He added that the findings of KWAP's internal review had been presented to its board and that any follow-up action should be taken in line with the principle of accountability, including action against those found to have been negligent.
