Rafizi: Tabung Haji pulling wool over depositors’ eyes with payout announcement
(Malay Mail Online) – PKR’s Rafizi Ramli insisted today that Lembaga Tabung Haji’s (LTH) cash reserves are in the red despite Putrajaya’s insistence that the RM3.23 billion payout the pilgrimage fund announced for depositors recently proved otherwise.
The Pandan MP also said his own audit on LTH’s financial statements from previous years indicated that it would not have sufficient funds to repay its nearly nine million contributors should they decide to withdraw their deposits all at once.
“LTH’s reserves is likely to remain negative for the financial year ending December 31, 2015 which means for the second year running its reserves are in deficit.
“A negative reserve means LTH won’t be able to return the savings should depositors decide to withdraw simultaneously,” Rafizi, an accountant by training, said in a statement.
The PKR vice-president added that LTH’s reserve deficit as at end-2015 is expected to hit RM3.195 billion.
He said when Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom announced a RM3.53 billion profit for the fund earlier this month, the minister had not taken into account the fall in prices of shares and securities held by LTH as investments.
This meant LTH based much of its revenue and asset value projections on unrealistic figures, he added.
“The loss from the stock and securities devaluation could amount up to RM3.1 billion,” the PKR leader said.
Rafizi also claimed bonuses paid out in 2012 and 2014 cost were higher than the fund’s turnover, ostensibly to placate its Malay depositors in the run-up to the 13th general election.
“It is important for depositors and the public to know that the five and three per cent hajj bonus does not indicate that Tabung Haji’s finances is stable,” the opposition lawmaker said.
Rafizi said he will continue to publicise analyses on LTH’s performance in order to pressure Putrajaya into replacing the fund’s chairman with a more qualified individual.
The fund’s finances came into public attention after a letter from Bank Negara Malaysia warning the fund that its assets were insufficient to meet its liabilities, was leaked to the public.
LTH CEO Tan Sri Ismee Ismail denied its reserves was in the negative, indicating that BNM had calculated wrongly because the central bank did not take into account the fund’s investment portfolios such as its subsidiaries, plantation assets and properties.
Earlier this month, LTH announced a 5 per cent dividend and 3 per cent bonus payout for depositors.
