Guan Eng: Former sec-gen of Treasury might be responsible for missing RM18bil

Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah ‘robbed’ RM18 billion, says Guan Eng

(The Star) – A former Treasury secretary-general may have been responsible for RM18 billion missing from a trust fund that was meant to hold Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the previous Government had definitely committed wrongdoing over the missing amount, and that internal investigations were ongoing.

“I would assume the previous KSB (ketua setiausaha perbendaharaan / Treasury secretary-general) would have known about this. Definitely it must have his approval.

“The money was not returned to the trust account. Only the highest can authorise that, why didn’t you put it in the trust account? The trust account is a very important account, by not doing so, that is wrongdoing already.

“For us, (investigations) internally, we want something definite because we want to look at the circle of decision makers.

“Definitely the previous KSB is in the know, as well as others, and we want to at least identify them and then ask the Prime Minister and Cabinet to decide how to proceed,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby on Wednesday.

Lim added that the money should have been put in the trust account, but was instead put in a consolidated fund and treated as revenue.

However, he assured that the Federal Government had a moral imperative to return the refunds and that the money raised to do so will be “fiscally responsible”.

On whether his predecessor Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was likely involved in causing the shortfall, Lim said the matter should be decided later once investigations were complete.