Yoursay: Perhaps a Nobel prize for creative accounting in Tabung Haji

YOURSAY | ‘Will our many syariah-compliant baitulmals step up to bail out the Tabung Haji funds?’

Azeez insists on Tabung Haji surplus but doesn't reveal creative accounting

Clever Voter: Financial reporting can be tricky at times. But in these days where standards are concerned, compliance is a must. Failure to do so is an offence.

The most recent review from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) on Tabung Haji should constitute the most updated and recent. Ignore politicians' opinions – many of them do not even have the skills to count.

It is very likely there are real cases of missing money and dodgy investments. It would be a waste teaching these people the basics, for they are here to disguise, and disturb the peace.

The government should make haste to arrest all of them.

Panorama123: Documentary evidence and supporting documents are all available. Audit trails can be easily verifiable to arrive at the full conclusion.

Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission also need to investigate the trading in BIMB (Bank Islam) shares based on the disclosures.

In fact, all the previous transactions executed on private limited companies by Tabung Haji need to be investigated.

The board of Tabung Haji would have signed off on its solvency position prior to the declaration of dividends, too.

Just imagine what will be the net asset value of Tabung Haji now if all their “bad” investments are now being transferred to a special purpose vehicle!

The Wakandan: All too soon, it reminds us of what former 1MDB CEO Arul Kanda Kandasamy said about 1MDB, that there was no loss, that 1MDB was self-sufficient and that there was money in “units”.

Of course, anybody without financial accounting training did not understand. For that matter, lots of people did not understand the shell companies and the layering that Jho Low did.

Former Tabung Haji chairperson Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim perhaps is trying to do the Arul Kanda with his audience being the innocent kampung folks who put their life savings for the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Lone_star: Only the other day, we had the Pasir Salak MP wanting to teach the UN, Malaysian history and the truth about discrimination in Malaysia.

Today, it appears Azeez wants to tutor PwC on auditing.

Beeja: Similar modus operandi perhaps at Amanah Saham Nasional and other Permodalan Nasional Bhd funds – the grapevine has been rife with rumours of these funds operating as Ponzi schemes for the longest time.

Will our many syariah-compliant baitulmals step up to bail out the syariah-compliant Tabung Haji funds? What deed could be more halal.

Anonymous_b497ffa7: Azeez should be awarded a Nobel Prize for creative accounting. The company was losing money but it continued to pay dividends and fat salaries to the top management.

He ought to be skinned alive for abusing a pilgrimage fund. Let the fundamentalist Muslims deal with him. Will they whip him? Stone him? Or chop off his hands?

Picture Fu: Ernst & Young and PwC should jointly convene a press conference to clear the air.

The buying and selling of the BIMB shares could be in contravention of Bursa rules as it could be deemed that the transaction resulted in no change of beneficial owner.

The brokers should be investigated as well.

FairMind: PwC should have named the people who instructed or approved the sale and buy-back of shares and for the non-compliance of assets impairment accounting standards practised worldwide.

This could be easily done by examining the board of directors’ minutes and by quizzing the CFO and sharebrokers.

Kunta Kinte: Something is fishy here. If the purpose of savings is for the haj, why did it allow someone to deposit RM190 million as a single deposit to earn high dividends?

Anonymous_1527925538: Indeed, how on earth can Jabatan Audit Negara allow a threshold for charging impairment losses to be more than 70 percent for Tabung Haji when the norm is just 20 percent.

Anonymous 2458911487665792: There won't be any dividend for 2019 based on the Tabung Haji Act.

Then they will blame the Pakatan Harapan government for not paying and compare to the good old days of BN government, where dividend was paid, regardless of the creative accounting.

Newday: Azeez, the 1MDB audit reports were manipulated during BN time. Who is to say the same thing did not happen to Tabung Haji audit in BN times?

The modus operandi to conceal the real facts is almost identical.

Voice of a Rakyat: Cooking the books. Many others government funds paid good dividends way above market despite the bad business environment.

Perhaps more creative accounting can be found there too. It’s time to perform audit review on those high-dividend government funds.

Hplooi: This is the result of the Umno hegemony since 1969 which makes a fine art out of rent-seeking. Every company built by hard-working people are forced (legally and extra-legally) to hand over shares to Umno cronies.

Directors are appointed from the Umno class to public companies and GLCs (government-linked companies). So many “directorships” are out for "appointment" that every Umno man with pretensions (including his son/wife/dog (errr cat) holds directorship in several companies.

Azeez is an exemplar of all that' wrong – a graduate of “Universiti Umno” being the prime qualifier.

What does he know about fiduciary interest or due diligence? Does he even understand "investment" or its complexity?

Anonymous_2dfe64eb: This is what happens when a country doesn’t operate by meritocracy. Special rights only produce creative accountants to cheat the special people. - Mkini