IN THE NAME OF ISLAM, BROAD DAYLIGHT ROBBERY AT GOVT-LINKED ISLAMIC BODY IKSIM

KUALA LUMPUR – Funds belonging to Malaysian Islamic Strategic Research Institute (Iksim) have been frozen with immediate effect, a minister from the Prime Minister’s Department announced today.

The minister in charge of Islamic affairs Mujahid Yusuf Rawa said this action was taken after an internal audit revealed possible abuse of power and misuse of funds.

“Federal Territories Islamic Religious Council (MAIWP) was one of its funders. However, MAIWP has stopped funding it further despite its earlier pledge to do so.

“If we look at Iksim’s internal audit, it had received RM7.6 million,” Mujahid said at the Parliament lobby today.

He said from this RM7.6 million, only RM200,000 that was spent had records of where the money had gone.

“There was no proof what the RM7.4 million was spent on,” he said.

The Parit Buntar MP said the government had no plans to continue allowing Iksim to operate since there was no transparency in its financial management.

“How to continue if its financial administration is not transparent?

Mujahid said that was the reason the authorities decided to freeze Iksim’s funds, adding that measures would be taken to see if the money could be recovered.

He, however, gave the assurance that the authorities would help Iksim’s employees if they had salary arrears.

– FMT