Sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd was selling assets to help the government pay the debt accrued by the previous administration, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"You must remember that the previous government borrowed more than RM1 trillion. That's a burden for us. They borrow and the money is not invested, but hidden and stolen.
"If the money is invested, we can go to the company or whatever to get back the money, but we don't know where the money is.
"At the moment we have to pay from taxes, all the asset we sell is to pay our debt. That's the burden left by Najib (Abdul Razak)," said Mahathir after launching the National Culture and Heritage Charter in Kuala Lumpur today.
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Mahathir also chairs the Khazanah board.
Umno leaders, including its former president Najib, have repeatedly criticised Putrajaya over Khazanah's string of divestments, which most recently included the Prince Court Medical Centre.
In recent years, Khazanah was profitable until it recorded a pre-tax loss of RM6.3 billion for 2018, mostly due to impairment cost involving Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS).
Earlier this year, Khazanah's board had given the company a refreshed mandate to restructure the organisation to deliver more cash to the government by divesting non-strategic assets.
[More to follow] - Mkini
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