The Employees Provident Fund chairperson Abdul Halim Ali or his representative must attend a public forum o­n Monday to explain why the lowest dividend in 40 years was declared for its 10.3 million contributors, said DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today.

EPF - a mandatory savings fund for private sector workers - declared 4.25 percent dividend for last year o­n April 18.

Lim said that the forum, organised by the party, would give the EPF an opportunity to explain why a higher dividend could not be declared for last year as compared with the five percent declared for 2001.

He added in a statement that the reduction in the dividend was especially glaring when the country had registered a higher economic growth of 4.2 percent last year from 0.4 percent the year before.

Paper losses

Yesterday, the party tendered an invitation to Abdul Halim to attend the forum.

The other speakers will be Lim himself, trade unionists N Siva Subramaniam (Cuepacs president) and G Rajasekaran (MTUC secretary-general), Fomca preident and Suhakam commissioner Prof Hamdan Adnan, and economist Charles Santiago.

The forum starts at 8pm at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur.

Lim added that Abdul Halim should also explain at the forum how the fund had managed to obtain a total of RM10 billion worth of paper losses in equity.

He said that previous EPF statements showed that the fund had suffered such continuous paper losses in 1998.

"Last year for instance, EPF had to set aside RM2.14 billion for paper losses in equity.

"This amount, if (converted into) dividend, would have enabled a declaration of 5.43 percent dividend instead," added Lim.

"The contributors are entitled to know what exactly is the grand total of the paper losses in equity...and how EPF could accumulate such an astronomical sum of losses."

Acting PM invited

Lim also added that Abdul Halim or his representative should be present at the forum to prove the EPF's claim to be a leader of corporate governance and best practices in transparency.

"If they shy away from attending the forum, then they should stop talking about aspiring to higher standards of corporate governance, financial reporting and transparency."

Lim also said that an invitation had also been sent to Acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in his capacity as the acting finance minister.

When contacted to ask if Abdul Halim or his representative would attend the forum, a staff at Halim's office said they were unaware about the forum.