The DAP wants to know what has happened to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's pledge last year that Bank Negara will investigate the tremendous amount of money being taken out of the country illegally.

“Despite Najib’s promises last year that a probe will be conducted by Bank Negara, the central bank has yet to announce the result of its investigations or explain the massive illicit capital flight, despite offers of help from top GFI economists.

NONE “Is this another case of BN’s ‘Janji Tak Ditepati’ or unfulfilled promises?” asked DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng in a statement issued yesterday.

Lim said Najib, who is also the finance minister, must fully account to Malaysians for the shocking RM196.8 billion in dirty money siphoned out of Malaysia in 2010 and the scandal of RM871 billion lost over the last 10 years, or else Najib should admit the failure of his Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

“Najib’s stubborn silence and failure to act over this RM871 billion scandal demonstrates not only his failure to uphold public accountability but that the BN government condones the practice of outflow of illicit or dirty money,” added Lim, who is also Penang chief minister.

azlan Yesterday, Washington-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI), in its latest report which tracks capital flight, revealed the level of illicit flows from Malaysia in 2010 was the highest in 10 years.

Close to RM200 billion of dirty money was siphoned out of Malaysia in 2010, putting the country second only to Asian economic powerhouse China in global capital flight.

Last year, GFI put the figure of illicit outflows for Malaysia in 2009 at US$46.86 billion (RM143.3 billion).

New methodology

This has been altered to US$30.41 billion (RM93 billion) after it introduced a new and more conservative methodology in its estimates of illicit financial outflows, which helps to zero in exclusively on dirty money.

The latest report finds a dramatic jump of capital flight in Malaysia - from US$30.41 billion (RM93 billion) in 2009 to US$64.38 billion (RM196.8 billion) in 2010.

azlan The global financial watchdog has warned that capital flight in Malaysia is “at a scale seen in few Asian countries”.

According to GFI, for the cumulative illicit financial outflows over 10 years - from 2001 to 2010 - Malaysia is ranked No 3 in the world, after China and Mexico, with a staggering figure of US$285 billion (RM871.4 billion).

GFI also described its estimates of global dirty money as “extremely conservative” as they do not include trade mispricing in services, same-invoice trade mispricing, hawala transactions, and dealings conducted in bulk cash.

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