COMMENT One question that has not been discussed very much is the US$60 million (RM240 million) invested in Mongolia.

According to the Finance Ministry, this amount was invested in Mongolia, but no further details were provided for public consumption by the ministry.

My question is, why is this matter not being explained in a transparent manner, despite the money being part of public funds supposedly used by 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) for investment purposes?

The investment is no small amount of money. RM240 million could have easily sponsored 240 medical students at some of the best universities around the world.

Or it could feed the residents of over 500 orphanages and old folks homes for a year, assuming that each spends half a million to maintain the residents. Yet, while our charitable organisations have suffered cuts in federal grants and some are running into deficits, no help has come their way.

Burning questions

Therefore, there are many burning questions to be asked. Hopefully, these questions will be raised in the next parliamentary session regarding the amount that was invested in Mongolia.

What exactly were the kind of mining activities carried out there? What company was involved? Who are the Malaysian directors in this company who will ensure that our interests are always protected? What are the returns from this investment?

There must be some proper annual report from the operations in Mongolia. Where are the reports? Were these reports given to the public accounts committee which investigated the 1MDB case?

The last that we heard about this RM240 investment in Mongolia was last year based on a parliamentary written reply by the Finance Ministry dated April 6 is that the account was still being audited. I am sure nine months down the road the accounts would have been audited. Where are the accounts?

In fact, many questions have been raised by Pakatan members of Parliament with regard to the status of the RM4 billion, including this amount of RM240 million, which has gone unaccounted for.

If the Finance Ministry had failed to reveal the details back then, perhaps, with the coming general election, it should at least come out with an appropriate answer to convince the voters. No?

Unless there is something to hide, I find it irresponsible for the Finance Ministry to cite that the accounts were still under audit, when it declined to reveal any details sought for by the opposition a year ago.

Profits used to help people

It is important that 1MDB and the Finance Ministry give a plausible answer this time as to what happened to the RM240 million investment in Mongolia.

By all means, if there are returns from the investments, 1MDB Foundation can fork out RM690 million for all the worthy causes such as its Special Haj Programme.

After all, there is a rule in the Income Revenue Board’s policy guidelines that you can only give to charity out of your profits, and not when you claim you are not making money. Is that correct?

If not, even the IRB would reject any tax exemption receipts. Logically, it does not make sense if the money from 1MDB did not come from the profits it had earned from investments such as in Mongolia and elsewhere, where else did it come from?

1MDB has, in fact, incurred huge debts. For example, the Abu Dhabi-based company, International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC) is demanding a repayment of about US$6.5 billion from 1MDB. The matter had to be brought to the London Court of Arbitration.

For sound financial management, I would have imagined that 1MDB prioritised the settlement of its debt first before giving to any corporate social responsibility programme.

This is what prompted former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to say that the money used for the Special Haj Programme is money stolen from the public coffers, therefore, considered as “haram” in the eyes of Muslims.

Muslims who are more literate should ask some important questions before going on the Special Haj Programme using the money from 1MDB Foundation, such as, “What happened to the ‘investment’ in Mongolia? Was there any return from the investment there?”

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.