NGO calls for probe into former A-G over Tabung Haji RCI claims

KUALA LUMPUR: A Sabah-based NGO has called for police to investigate former auditor-general Tan Sri Madinah Mohamad over conflicting accounts surrounding the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report on Tabung Haji (TH), saying Muslim depositors deserve full transparency over billions of ringgit in financial losses.

Gerakan Kuasa Rakyat Malaysia (G57) chairman Datuk Zulkarnain Mahdar said he lodged a report with the Commercial Crime Investigation Department to determine whether Madinah had concealed information or made false public statements about TH’s affairs.

He said the report followed contradictory statements by Madinah and TH chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Hussain over her involvement in the RCI proceedings.

Madinah claimed she was denied the opportunity to testify before the panel, while Rashid disputed her account, saying she had been subpoenaed and had answered 75 questions in a statutory declaration that was officially recorded as witness testimony.

Zulkarnain also questioned Madinah’s claim that she saw no evidence of theft or mismanagement during her tenure as auditor-general from 2017 to 2019, saying parliamentary reports showed that TH had incurred nearly RM13 billion in losses from 14 troubled investments.

He highlighted TH’s hotel leasing deal in Makkah and Madinah with Al-Rawda Real Estate Development and Project Management Co Ltd, which resulted in billions of ringgit in losses after unsecured promissory notes were used instead of standard bank guarantees.

He also questioned why the National Audit Department had failed to flag the transactions.