BOMBSHELL – DISGRACED NAJIB MAN IRWAN SIREGAR AMONG ‘CIRCLE OF DECISION-MAKERS’ PROBED FOR RM18 BILLION ‘ROBBERY’ OF GST REFUNDS: ‘DEFINITELY EX-TREASURY SEC-GEN WOULD KNOW ABOUT IT’ – GUAN ENG REFUSES TO SAY IF NAJIB ALSO INVOLVED UNTIL PROBE COMPLETED

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng today claimed that a former Treasury secretary-general was likely aware of a shortfall of RM18 billion in a trust fund where goods and services tax (GST) refunds were supposed to be deposited by the government.

Confirming that there was wrongdoing by the previous administration leading to the shortfall, he said investigations were ongoing.

When asked if former prime minister Najib Razak was implicated in the matter, Lim declined to comment in detail.

“Najib is already facing multiple charges, so I don’t want to comment on this until the investigations are completed,” he said at the Parliament lobby.

When pressed for more details, Lim said the former Treasury secretary-general was likely aware of it.

“He has the power and has authorised all the documents, how can he not know this happened?” he said.

Earlier today, Lim revealed that there was a shortfall of RM18 billion in a trust fund where GST refunds were supposed to be deposited by the government.

He told the Dewan Rakyat that the previous government robbed the rakyat of their money, which was abused or given to their cronies.

“They did not keep their trust. It’s a huge abuse. Some of the money was used for their cronies,” he said, adding that the present government does not have the money to pay the rakyat the GST refunds although they had been claiming for the refunds since April, 2015. – FMT

Guan Eng: Former sec-gen of Treasury might be responsible for missing RM18bil

KUALA LUMPUR: A former Treasury secretary-general may have been responsible for RM18bil missing from a trust fund that was meant to hold Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the previous Government had definitely committed wrongdoing over the missing amount, and that internal investigations were ongoing.

“I would assume the previous KSB (ketua setiausaha perbendaharaan / Treasury secretary-general) would have known about this. Definitely it must have his approval.

“The money was not returned to the trust account. Only the highest can authorise that, why didn’t you put it in the trust account? The trust account is a very important account, by not doing so, that is wrongdoing already.

“For us, (investigations) internally, we want something definite because we want to look at the circle of decision makers.

“Definitely the previous KSB is in the know, as well as others, and we want to at least identify them and then ask the Prime Minister and Cabinet to decide how to proceed,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby on Wednesday.

Lim added that the money should have been put in the trust account, but was instead put in a consolidated fund and treated as revenue.

However, he assured that the Federal Government had a moral imperative to return the refunds and that the money raised to do so will be “fiscally responsible”.

On whether his predecessor Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was likely involved in causing the shortfall, Lim said the matter should be decided later once investigations were complete. – ANN

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