RM1.26 MILLION unpaid Amex bills: Probe Khazanah execs - DAP

KUALA LUMPUR — Police should investigate the over RM1.2 million in unpaid American Express (Amex) charges racked up by Khazanah Nasional executives as highlighted in the Auditor-General’s (A-G) Report 2012, according to a federal lawmaker today.

DAP’s Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng, who lodged a report here today over the matter and the RM1.6 million spent by the Youth and Sports Ministry to pay “K-pop” artistes to perform at the Hari Belia Negara 2012 event, said the police needed to scrutinise both for elements of corruption or wrongdoing.

“It was found that there were some Khazanah staff who failed to declare their expenses using the card, to the point that the outstanding balance as at December 31, 2012 was RM1.26 million,” Lim said in his report.

“I ask the police to investigate all the exposes in the Auditor-General’s 2012 Report, especially the two issues I raised to see if there are any elements of cheating, bribery, misappropriation and other crimes, and for immediate arrests if there are.”

In the A-G’s report, it was found that Khazanah Nasional issued Amex corporate charge cards with no spending limits to 106 of its senior executives. Their usage requires cardholders to provide a monthly spending analysis to verify all charges and provide accompanying receipts for approval.

But the auditors discovered that some of Khazanah’s cardholders did not comply with the requirement, resulting in the RM1.26 million being recorded as “unpaid”.

Khazanah informed the A-G that the sum was in fact paid off with American Express but was listed as such due to the cardholders’ failure to make their monthly declarations ― some of which were more than two months behind at the time of audit, despite the firm’s regulation that undeclared monthly usage exceeding three months would lead a revocation of the card.

The A-G’s 2012 report, which was released earlier this week, it was also discovered that the Youth and Sports Ministry spent RM1.6 million to bring in three pop acts from South Korea as part of the line-up of artistes that performed at the Hari Belia or National Youth Day celebration.

The A-G determined that the money came straight from the government and not from sponsors as earlier claimed by ministry officials.

Malay Mail