PETALING JAYA: Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) should remain a single entity but undergo a major governance overhaul, says the newly declassified Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report.
The report said the overhaul should include barring active politicians from its board, and conducting forensic audits into past investments that led to a severe decline in asset values.
The report said the weaknesses that led to TH’s financial problems could be addressed without fundamentally changing its existing structure.
“Although TH faced a serious financial crisis in the 2017 financial year, prompting various parties to put forward studies and proposals to change its existing model, including splitting TH into separate entities, the Commission believes the institution should be retained in its current form,” it said.
In the report, the Commission also made several recommendations to address the issues, including preventing active politicians from being appointed as chairman or board members of TH and its subsidiaries.
“The practice of awarding excessively high bonuses to staff should be stopped,” it said.
It also recommended setting specific criteria for individuals eligible for board appointments and setting up a clear process for selecting board members.
The RCI also called for a greater separation of responsibilities, with the Minister in charge of religious affairs overseeing haj management and the Finance Minister responsible for financial matters, funds and investments.
The RCI recommended forensic audits of past investments to determine how decisions were made that resulted in a severe decline in the value of TH’s assets.
Among the investments identified for forensic audits were TH Indo Plantations, Emrail, Wellspring Worldwide, Deru Semangat, Trurich Resources, Abraj, Putrajaya Perdana, Al-Rawda, Al-Fareeda Residential Fund, TH Plantations, TH Properties, Alam Maritim Resources/TH Marine, TH Hotel & Residences and FGV Berhad.
The Commission also called for firm and immediate action on every police report or complaint involving alleged misconduct at TH.
The RCI report said TH took disciplinary action against five former senior officers with an initial recommendation to dismiss four of them, but this was later reduced to demotions.
The report identified the five, who included former TH group chief financial officer Datuk Rozaida Omar, and former chief operating officer Datuk Adi Azuan Abdul Ghani.
Others were TH’s then chief human resources officer Mohd Hisham Harun, former senior general manager for corporate services and property Rifina Md Ariff, as well as then legal advisor Hazlina Mohd Khalid.
The report said each of them faced charges across four clusters of misconduct with the first being on the issue of share sales in PT TH Indo Plantations.
Other clusters include declaration of distributable profit (hibah) for 2017, unauthorised contribution of RM22.12mil without approval, and submission of false claims
In the first cluster, charges were issued in May 2020 and by April 2021, TH’s Disciplinary Committee decided to dismiss four of the five officers, but appeals later reduced the punishment to demotion.
The report also confirmed several related matters were referred to the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC), including allegations of corruption, misappropriation, and falsification of documents.
“The Commission is of the position that MACC should be given appropriate space to continue any action within the scope of existing law,” the report added.
