Tabung Haji RCI must include restructuring plan by PH, says Umno man

 

Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki says the RCI should also include the issue of the RM27.56 billion that Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd (UJSB) owes Tabung Haji.

PETALING JAYA: The scope of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the alleged mismanagement of Tabung Haji (TH) should be expanded to include the ongoing recovery and restructuring plan first introduced during the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration.

Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the restructuring plan was questioned by the auditor-general (AG) in TH’s 2019 Annual Report.

“However, until now, there have been no improvements made based on the AG’s critique.”

The RCI on TH was among the main criteria initially set out by the Umno Supreme Council for the party’s continued support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Asyraf added the RCI should also include the issue of the RM27.56 billion that Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd (UJSB) owes TH.

USJB is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the finance ministry.

“This is because even though PH has repeatedly said that the sukuk will be guaranteed by the government, in reality, it was never tabled in Parliament nor did it adhere to the Loans Guarantee (Bodies Corporate) Act 1965.”

Thirdly, the RCI should also look into UJSB’s capabilities to pay the RM27.56 billion to TH before 2027.

According to deputy finance minister (II) Mohd Shahar Abdullah during a Question and Answer session in the Dewan Rakyat last year, UJSB had only made RM234 million in 2019.

Asyraf said an inquiry into the capacity of UJSB will allow the RCI to come up with suggestions to ensure that the debts can be repaid on time.

He added that expanding the inquiry to include this would enable the RCI to investigate the real-time financial situation of TH as it is today, saying that TH’s visible profits in 2019 were just RM210 million.

The remaining RM1.39 billion was hidden, with a large percentage coming from UJSB bonds.

“This hidden profit is money not yet deposited into TH’s accounts,” Asyraf said.

He called for widening the scope of the inquiry to enable the commission to come up with recommendations, especially with official documents having clearly stated that the sukuk were zero-coupon bonds that could not be traded, or go through any transfer of ownership.

Putrajaya today announced it had formed the RCI to probe management and operation issues faced by TH from 2014 to 2020.

In a statement, deputy prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the scope of the RCI would focus on findings by auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY) and Roland Berger in that six-year span.

In response, TH group managing director and chief executive officer Amrin Awaluddin said the fund welcomed the government’s decision to set up the RCI.

Meanwhile, former Islamic affairs minister Mujahid Yusof Rawa, who had first agreed to set up the RCI over a year ago when Pakatan Harapan was in power, also questioned why its scope would not include the ongoing restructuring plan.

“It is clear that Umno had taken over the Cabinet decision today,” he said in a Tweet this evening. - FMT