BANGI: A member of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), Tan Sri Rashid Hussain, has refuted claims that former Auditor-General Tan Sri Dr Madinah Mohamad was denied the opportunity to testify before the commission.
Rashid, who is also TH chairman, said the RCI's records showed that Madinah had been summoned to appear before the commission on June 3, 2022, but requested that the deputy director of financial audit, Mona Osman, be allowed to come together with her to testify.
"It is impossible to believe that we would not have called her to appear before us. Our records showed that she was subpoenaed to appear on June 3, 2022.
"But she requested not to come alone, but instead to be accompanied by her deputy director, Mona Osman," he told reporters after attending a dialogue discussing the reality and future of TH, here on Thursday (Sept 3).
As RCI examines witnesses on a one-to-one basis, he said, the RCI then decided to call Mona to testify on June 2, 2022.
Rashid said Madinah was also allowed to provide her views through 75 questions submitted to her, which she answered under a statutory declaration.
"She submitted her answers to the 75 questions, together with an accompanying letter, and all these are recorded in our witness statement records. So, it is not true to say that she did not have an opportunity to be represented or to provide her views," he stressed.
Rashid said the clarification was made to set the record straight following claims that Madinah had not been allowed to testify before the RCI.
On Aug 25, Madinah said RCI might have reached different findings had she been called to testify before the commission.
Madinah, who served as Auditor-General from 2017 to 2019, said the 2017 Auditor-General's Report prepared by her team had not identified any evidence of direct theft involving TH.
On July 29, the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM) published the 211-page RCI Report on the investigation into TH's management and operations from 2014 to 2020.
The report outlined various findings on weaknesses in the institution's management during the period and made 25 recommendations for improvement, 75 per cent of which had been implemented by TH as of July 30. – Bernama
