No large scale panic withdrawals, says Tabung Haji chief

There have been no large-scale panic withdrawals from Tabung Haji since its dubious finances were exposed, says the fund's CEO Zukri Samat said today. 

Zukri pointed out that there have even been new account openings today.

"The public still supports Tabung Haji... today, we received 170 applications to open new accounts," he said at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur. 

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had earlier warned that the Pakatan Harapan government's "surprise" revelation on Lembaga Tabung Haji's alleged cooking of the books could result in mass withdrawals and destabilise the fund.

It was revealed yesterday that Tabung Haji had an RM4.1 billion deficit, and that it had only been able to pay dividends since 2014 through creative accounting.

Earlier today, Zukri's predecessor Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim citedreviews by independent auditor Ernst & Young under the previous BN administration, and said that Tabung Haji's assets should stand at RM74.7 billion and its liabilities at RM74.4 billion as at end-2017, representing a surplus of RM373 million.

Azeez, however, did not address the discrepancies raised by auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers. - Mkini