Contrary to assertions by former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, the late Bank Negara (BN) governor Jaffar Hussein was "among the main architects of foreign exchange speculation" that caused losses of up to RM30 billion, a former central bank official has alleged.

Rosli Yaakop ( left ), who until April 1994 was the bank's economics department deputy manager, said Jaffar could not be freed from sharing the responsibility together with Second Finance Minister Nor Mohamed Yakcop for the losses that occurred between 1992 to 1994.

"I was at Bank Negara then and I knew the inside story. Among the main architects of the forex speculation was the governor himself and Nor Mohamed, who implemented the speculation (scheme)," Rosli told malaysiakini .

He said that Nor Mohamed was considered as Jaffar's blue-eyed boy.

Currently PAS Negri Sembilan chief, Rosli was commenting on Anwar's claims in an interview last week that Jaffar "did not know about it (the losses)" and "genuinely thought that it was a small amount".

Anwar, then finance minister, named former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who worked in cahoots with former finance minister Daim Zainuddin and Nor Mohamed in causing the collossal losses.

Jaffar and Nor Mohamed (then assistant governor in charge of investment, reserve management and foreign exchange trading) were made to step down following an internal inquiry.

Jaffar was then appointed deputy chairperson of government investment firm Permodalan Nasional Bhd up to his death in 1996.

Meanwhile, Nor Mohamed was brought back by Mahathir as economic adviser four years after the Bank Negara fiasco, and he was named second finance minister in 2004 by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Not 'paper losses'

Rosli said Jaffar had initially sought to mitigate the situation by claiming it to be merely losses "on paper". This was later disproved, with the real sum amounting to billions of ringgit.

Jaffar had failed to discern that misappropriation and falsification had occurred in reports on the state of foreign exchange transactions, claimed Rosli.

While the losses were identified by lower-ranking officers, no action was taken to prevent additional losses but because the matter was concealed from the governor's knowledge, said Rosli.

"Jaffar's biggest mistake while leading Bank Negara was placing too much trust in Nor Mohamed and failing to discern breach of Bank Negara regulations and (currency) market norms," he said.

In the final analysis, he said, the actions of Jaffar ( right ) and Nor Mohamed had led the people's money to "go down the drain" and had burdened the public.

"Looking back, the punishment meted out to the late Jaffar Hussein and Nor Mohamed was overly mild and was not commensurate with the seriousness of the offence," Rosli added.

Veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang had recently reiterated his complaint raised in Parliament more than 12 years ago on the government's failure to come clean on the losses.

The issue re-emerged recently after Umno-linked tycoon and former Malaysia Airlines chief Tajudin Ramli made a number of allegations in a counter law suit.

Following this, Lim called for a royal commission of inquiry to reveal the culprits responsible for the losses.