Armed Forces veterans group Patriot has hit out at former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and former defence minister Hishamuddin Hussein for their recent comments on the low dividend of two percent for the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) shareholders.

National Association of Patriots president Mohamed Arshad Raji (above) noted the barrage of criticism against the Defence Ministry after it was announced that LTAT had a net profit of RM221 million for the financial year 2018, a substantial drop of 51.9 percent from 2017.

"Najib and Hishamuddin had the gall to criticise the current government for the poor performance of LTAT when, in fact, the problem was theirs in the making," Arshad said in a statement today.

He cited LTAT’s auditor, Ernst & Young's audit report for the period Dec 31, 2017, to Dec 31, 2018, which found “past transactions that contained potential irregularities and weaknesses in operational, accounting and legal areas”.

Arshad said: "There were seven key findings on financial irregularities and weaknesses. Among the seven, two were serious and implicated negligence and incompetency of those previously at the helm."

He added that there was overpayment of dividends from financial years 2014 to 2018 and this has affected the retained earnings of LTAT.

'Overstatement of LTAT’s assets between 2015 and 2017'

"The five-year asset returns were lower than the declared dividend rates, and this resulted in LTAT paying dividends at a higher rate than it should have."

He also claimed that there was an overstatement of LTAT’s assets between 2015 and 2017.

"This was due to failure to impair a large investment that went awry and has resulted in an overstatement of LTAT’s assets. Due diligence was not properly undertaken prior to investing in the company," he alleged.

Arshad also disputed Hishamuddin's statement that "Boustead had to sell off Hotel Bintang Royale Chulan to a Singapore company at below market price".

"The LTAT board has yet to make a final decision over the sale of the hotel," he said.

He also called on politicians and members of the public to wait until a thorough investigation is carried out and a final report concluded on the irregularities found by the appointed auditor.

"Patriot urges that all irregularities, as discovered by the auditor, be made known publicly so that depositors and investors may regain confidence in LTAT.

"Should there be abuse or conflict of interest in the financial management by any member of the previous board, then appropriate charges must be pressed on the offender(s)," Arshad added. - Mkini