PUTRAJAYA: The probe into Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) is not limited to the period covered by the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), with enforcement agencies free to look beyond 2020, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said enforcement and investigative agencies were already looking beyond the period covered by the RCI.
"All the actions and studies being undertaken now go beyond the RCI. The RCI only serves as the overarching framework.
“There is nothing stopping us from looking into what happened before and after, and this is what the enforcement and investigative agencies are doing," said Anwar.
The government had previously been urged to extend the scope of the RCI into TH related issues to cover 2021 to 2026, rather than just 2014 to 2020.
On Aug 13, Barisan Nasional said the declassification and tabling of the (RCI) report on the management of TH has provided a transparent platform for public scrutiny.
Barisan said the report, which was tabled and debated in the Dewan Rakyat on Aug 11, should now be examined objectively based on facts and evidence rather than being used for political blame.
Barisan secretary-general Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said the RCI focused on the period from 2014 to 2020 and called for a comprehensive review of TH’s governance across other periods as well.
Umno supreme council member Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Maslan, meanwhile, was reported to have claimed that the sale and purchase of TH assets also took place between 2021 and 2026, rather than only during the 2014 to 2020 period.
Several other government backbenchers have also made similar calls in Parliament.
On Aug 16, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government will amend the Tabung Haji Act 1995 (Act 535) to ensure that the trust of Muslims continues to be safeguarded.
Anwar, also the Finance Minister, said the amendment was among the Madani government’s measures to strengthen governance and ensure that every institutional weakness was addressed firmly.
