The government should disclose if former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin had been implicated in the Time dotCom bailout scandal, an opposition leader said today.

DAP national chairperson Lim Kit Siang added that if this was found to be the case, then Daim should be punished.

"The cabinet meeting tomorrow should explain what actions had been taken, whether Daim was implicated and if so, why he and other officers responsible for criminal negligence, breach of trust and misapplication of public funds have not been brought to justice," said

In April, it was announced that Daim would be taking a two-month holiday, leading to talk that the relations between him and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad were becoming frosty.

On June 2, rumours of Daim quitting proved true when Mahathir announced the former's resignation from his ministerial post and as treasurer of ruling party Umno.

During Daim's tenure, two funds administered by the Finance Ministry - the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and the Pensions Trust Fund (KWAP) - and national debt restructuring body Danaharta bought up 76 percent of Time dotCom's initial public offering (IPO) of RM1.88 billion.

This was despite the public subscription shortfall of telecommunication company, with applications for only 142.86 millions shares out of the 571.7 million shares made available for the public.

Subsequently, the initial IPO pricing at RM3.30 per share fell to RM2.12.

Mismanagement

"EPF, KWAP and Danaharta have collectively lost the mindboggling sums of RM531.32 million in the past three months since Time dotCom's public debut.

"This taking part in the bailout of Time dotCom for the benefit of Time Engineering, Renong and Halim Saad is a most unforgivable and unpardonable mismanagement of public funds," said Lim.

Halim is CEO of Renong which owns Time Engineering, the parent company of Time dotCom.

Daim had defended the bailout, stating that it is a "matter of national pride" and that critics of the bailout should "be serious and responsible and not make wild allegations".

Lim added that the three bodies were not given a choice on the issue of the bailout.

"It is clear that the KWAP and the EPF investment panels were unable to exercise independent and impartial judgement with regard to the use of its monies in the bailout, which would mean a violation of the statutory duties of the KWAP and EPF and the unlawful investment of its monies," Lim added.

The EPF has approximately 9.7 million subscribers; KWAP, a fund for retired civil servants, has 850,000.