Umno man asks for TH board to be suspended pending investigations
PARLIAMENT | Rompin MP Hasan Arifin today asked for the Tabung Haji (TH) board of directors to be suspended until a full investigation is launched into alleged mismanagement of the fund and Parliament is briefed on its outcome.
"I ask the government to suspend the top management of Tabung Haji until a final solution is reached and we can see who is right who is wrong.
PARLIAMENT | Rompin MP Hasan Arifin today asked for the Tabung Haji (TH) board of directors to be suspended until a full investigation is launched into alleged mismanagement of the fund and Parliament is briefed on its outcome.
"I ask the government to suspend the top management of Tabung Haji until a final solution is reached and we can see who is right who is wrong.
"The Tabung Haji is very important for the Muslim community in our country.
"I would like to call for an audit and would like to request for a briefing to be made to the distinguished members of this house," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
The issue of alleged mismanagement of the fund has persisted with former fund chairperson Abdul Azeez Rahim (BN-Baling) and ex-premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad (IND-Langkawi) trading barbs last week over the former's tenure as the pilgrimage fund board chairman from 2013 to 2018.
Azeez (photo) blasted Mahathir for accusing him of robbing TH, saying no charges were made against him on this issue during the previous Pakatan Harapan administration.
The Baling MP is facing 13 counts of graft and money laundering charges related to road projects in Perak and Kedah.
The prosecution had not brought any TH-related charges against him up until the Harapan government under Mahathir's premiership collapsed in February, ending its 22 months in power.
An independent review by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2018 had found that TH's liabilities exceeded the value of its assets, which meant that it could not issue any dividends in accordance with the Tabung Haji Act 1995.
However, the previous TH management had allegedly hidden the losses it suffered to show a surplus which would allow them to pay out dividends.
Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has persistently called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate allegations of abuses in the TH that purportedly occurred during the BN era.
