KUALA LUMPUR: The Retirement Fund Inc’s (KWAP) investment in an Indonesian startup company was driven by over-reliance on international trends, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The Prime Minister said the episode highlighted the need to tighten safeguards when investing public funds, despite existing due diligence and investment committee procedures.
“The due diligence and investment committee processes before proposals are brought to the board are very structured and stringent.
“However, I believe the recent investment in Jakarta exposed a major weakness, as they had merely followed international trends,” he said during Prime Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat.
“I acknowledge that this was a weakness in the process. I accept the reminder that, when safeguarding public funds entrusted to us, we must introduce even stricter procedures,” he added.
Anwar was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee (PN-Beluran), who wanted to know what measures the government was taking to identify those responsible for the substantial losses suffered by KWAP.
It was reported that the Finance Ministry has found that KWAP was deceived out of about US$47.7mil in investment in Indonesian agritech startup eFishery.
KWAP invested alongside a consortium of reputable international institutional investors, including Temasek, SoftBank, 42XFund, and Northstar, all of which conducted their own rigorous reviews.
The Prime Minister said the government would further tighten regulations to ensure that public funds entrusted to KWAP were managed responsibly.
“However, we must not overlook KWAP’s overall performance, which has recorded substantial profits and recently achieved a new record,” he said.
Anwar also told the Dewan Rakyat that investigation papers on alleged misconduct involving Felda were returned to the Attorney General at least three times, contributing to the delay in the investigation.
He said the probe was reopened after the current administration took over in 2022, despite the Felda white paper having been issued in 2019.
“The Felda investigation papers went back and forth with the AG and due to some gaps, the papers would be sent back for further work,” he said in response to a supplementary question from Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (PN-Pasir Mas), who sought clarification on the delay in investigations involving Felda.
