‘PM must account for RM871b outflow’

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng wants Najib Tun Razak to be accountable for the hundreds of billions of illicit outflows from Malaysia between 2001 and 2009.

PETALING JAYA: Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak must fully account for the nearly RM200 billion in dirty money siphoned out of Malaysia in 2010, as well as the RM871 billion lost over the past 10 years, DAP secretary-general Lim Guang Eng demanded today.

“Najib’s stubborn silence and failure to act over this RM871 billion scandal demonstrates not only his failure to hold public accountability, but that the BN government condones the practice of outflow of illicit or dirty money,” Lim said in a statement today.

The Penang chief minister was referring to a report released by Washington-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI) yesterday, which found that in 2010, Malaysia was the world’s number two when it came to illegal capital flight, second only to China.

The report further revealed that Malaysia ranks number three globally over 10 years from 2001 to 2010 with US$285 billion (RM871.4 billion) of illicit outflow.

The year 2010 also saw the highest level of illicit flows in Malaysia in the previous 10 years; in 2009, Malaysia’s capital flight was US$30.41 billion (RM93 billion), and that figure leaped to US$64.38 billion (RM196.8 billion) within the following year – an increase of 112%.

GFI has not yet obtained data for 2011 and 2012, but will include it in future reports.

Lim today described Malaysia’s record as being “shameful” and challenged Najib, who is finance minister, to either take full responsibility for the dirty money or admit that his Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) was a failure.

“Najib should come clean about this RM871 billion scandal and wash away the shame it has brought to Malaysia,” said Lim.

He also urged the prime minister to invite the GRI economists to Malaysia so that they may investigate the source of this problem.

“Despite Najib’s promises last year that a probe would be conducted by Bank Negara, the central bank has yet to announce the result of its investigations or explain the massive illicit capital flight, despite offers of help from top GFI economists.

“Is this another case of BN’s ‘Janji Tak Ditepati’ [unfulfilled promises?]” asked Lim.

Last year, Najib had disputed GFI’s figures and gave Parliament a lower figure of RM135.3 billion outflow from 2000 to 2009.

Lim also pointed out that the report merely confirmed the recent Bribe Payer’s Survey in which 50% of its respondents said they had lost business in Malaysia due to bribery.

The survey had ranked Malaysia the worse out of 31 countries, including Indonesia (47%), Pakistan (42%) and Russia (39%).