KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on Lembaga Tabung Haji will be released soon, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said he will consult the Chief Secretary to the Government on whether the report will have to be tabled before the Cabinet first.
“If there is a need (to refer to the Cabinet), I will wait for Wednesday,” he said.
Anwar added that while the Cabinet resolved to make the report public, ministers were counselled against immediate publication pending reforms at Tabung Haji.
“We were cautioned because that was the time when there was a need to transform the management and to correct some of these irregularities.
“And I think certainly there was a transgression of many rules and ... I can’t say corruption, but there was certainly major abuse.
“But now, I think Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Hussain (chairman of Lembaga Tabung Haji) and the team have done a wonderful job. They’ve managed Tabung Haji as a very well-managed institution, which is transparent and well-audited,” he said, adding that there is no reason to stop the government from releasing the report.
In 2022, then Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah consented to the setting up of the RCI to investigate Tabung Haji’s management and operational issues from 2014 to 2020.
His Majesty also approved the appointment of six RCI members, chaired by former Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif.
On Wednesday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Dr Zulkifli Hasan denied allegations that strategic assets of Lembaga Tabung Haji were sold by a former Treasury secretary-general.
“The allegation is untrue and false. What actually happened was a bailout operation to save a financial institution serving Muslims, which had been affected by the reckless misappropriation of depositors’ funds before 2018,” he told the Dewan Negara.
He said the sale of Tabung Haji assets that were underperforming and problematic to the government-owned special purpose vehicle Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd was a collective decision by the Cabinet in 2018.
Zulkifli said the Auditor-General and Bank Negara Malaysia had revealed Tabung Haji’s serious financial problems when its asset-liability deficit reached RM10.9bil that year.
