Rafizi wants independent audit on Tabung Haji’s investments

PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli today urged the government to launch an independent audit on all of Tabung Haji’s investments for the past 16 years, with particular focus on individuals linked to its troubled subsidiaries.

In a statement, Rafizi said Tabung Haji’s board must act to ensure that there were no elements of negligence, abuse of power or any personal gains from investment decisions made by its senior management.

Among others, he cited the charge against TH Heavy Engineering former CEO Nor Badli Munawir Mohamad Alias Latfi last month as grounds for Tabung Haji’s board to review his investment decisions as well as those made by others connected to him.

“I have therefore personally reviewed (Tabung Haji’s) senior management involved in its investments that resulted in hundreds of millions of ringgit in losses.

“Aside from becoming the CEO at TH Heavy Engineering, Nor Badli was also formerly the CEO of Theta Edge Berhad (formerly known as Lityan Holdings Berhad),” the Pandan MP said.

Rafizi, who urged Tabung Haji’s management to review past decisions made by the individual, said that there is also another senior officer who had previously served a a board member for Theta Edge Berhad and Silverbird.

“Just like how Tabung Haji’s investments in Silverbird had suffered heavy losses, its investments in Theta Edge Berhad also continued to record losses.

“Based on its audited financial statement for the year ending Dec 31, 2015, Theta Edge and its subsidiaries accumulated losses amounted to RM90 million,” he noted.

“Tabung Haji is the largest shareholder in Theta Edge with a 69 percent stake,” said Rafizi, who pledged to continue his exposes with performance of Tabung Haji’s investments in Theta Edge.

Rafizi, meanwhile, also insisted that he is dedicated to expose mismanagement linked to Tabung Haji as there was a higher expectation on the fund’s overall investment performance when compared to other commercial ventures.

“Therefore, when investments in certain companies involving hundreds of millions of ringgit of depositors’ funds were lost, I have also investigated the individuals who had represented Tabung Haji in these companies,” he said.

A better management of Tabung Haji’s investments, he said, would ultimately yield higher returns for its depositors who comprised future haj pilgrims.

Tabung Haji achieved a net profit of RM2.48 billion in 2016, down 29.8 percent from RM3.54 billion the previous year.

The fund said the decline was due to the absence of one-off gains such as the sale of plantations in 2015.- Mkini