SEREMBAN: Making public the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) will allow the public to know the truth, says former minister Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa.
The Amanah deputy president said that since he had also been questioned by the RCI panel, he was looking forward to learning the outcome of the findings.
This, he said, was important as the people, especially the depositors, would know who was responsible for the alleged mess in the fund.
"The RCI panel, which was composed of highly qualified members, had carried out an independent, comprehensive and professional investigation.
"The people have the right to know," he said.
Mujahid expressed hope that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would make public the RCI findings after getting the Cabinet's nod.
He said this was also important as the Malays were often told that Pakatan was responsible for the problems in Tabung Haji and that he had sold the fund's assets.
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.
Al-Sultan Abdullah also approved the appointment of six RCI members, chaired by former chief justice Tun Md Raus Sharif.
Meanwhile, Mujahid claimed that a 2017 financial audit of Tabung Haji had allegedly exposed management wrongdoings, including unlawful dividend payouts.
He also claimed the management at the time had paid out dividends despite the fund lacking the financial capacity to do so.
He also alleged that the management had manipulated the fund's impairment policy, bypassing standard accounting protocols to mask its true financial health.
"When Pakatan Harapan took over the federal government in 2018, I, as the minister in charge of Tabung Haji, was briefed on the fund's 2017 audit report.
"It was then I discovered what I believe to be wrongdoings and there was no other option but for us to carry out a restructuring exercise to save the fund," he told reporters.
This, he said, was important as Tabung Haji had 9.2mil depositors.
Mujahid claimed that the management also changed the fund's accounting impairment policy thrice in one year and this was not in accordance with financial and accounting standards.
"They did so to show the fund had registered profits so they could pay out dividends," he said.
An accounting impairment policy is an official corporate guideline that dictates how a company reviews, measures, and writes down the value of its assets when their market value permanently drops below their recorded balance sheet value.
Mujahid claimed the audit report also showed that the fund failed to record the more than RM200mil losses suffered by one of its subsidiaries.
Mujahid said he had ordered that the audit report be sent to two external and reputable accounting firms to be verified.
"It was verified that there was a RM4.1bil deficit gap between assets and liabilities and that the accounting impairment policy was changed thrice in one year so that the fund could show it registered a profit in its balance sheet.
"It was also revealed that the losses registered by some of the fund's subsidiaries were not recorded," he said, adding that some subsidiaries which registered profits had also failed to forward these to the fund.
Mujahid, who was minister in charge from 2018 to 2020, said police reports were then lodged so that the allegations could be probed.
