PETALING JAYA: Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki has insisted he had no say in Tabung Haji’s (TH) decisions during his tenure as deputy religious affairs minister despite attending a 2017 signing ceremony linked to the agency’s most troubled investment.
A 2017 photograph showing Asyraf, then-TH chairman Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, and others involved in signing the 10-year lease extension agreement with Al-Rawda Real Estate Development and Project Management Co Ltd has recently been circulating on Facebook.
Finance minister II Amir Hamzah Azizan said on Tuesday that the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into TH’s financial management from 2014 to 2020 found that seven of the pilgrim fund’s 14 investments during the period resulted in total losses.
Amir said the largest loss was from TH’s investment in Al-Rawda, a Saudi Arabia-based property development and project management company.
“It seems there is a concerted effort to tarnish and destroy my image by trying to link me to any issue involving Tabung Haji,” Asyraf said, reported Malaysiakini.
“For the record, I was asked to serve as Malaysia’s chief of the haj delegation in 2017, replacing the (religious affairs) minister.
“As I happened to be in Makkah at the time, I was invited to represent the minister at the event,” he said.
Asyraf said deputy ministers had no authority to intervene in TH’s operations or approval processes. He said TH’s CEO and management handled the agency’s operational matters, with the chairman and board providing oversight and major policy matters ultimately decided by the religious affairs minister.
Asyraf said this explained why neither the RCI nor enforcement agencies had ever summoned him for questioning.
Malaysakini reported that Asyraf posted the comment on a Facebook post that shared a photograph of the signing ceremony between TH and Al-Rawda.
Speaking during a special sitting on the RCI report on TH at the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday, Amir said the investment involved lease agreements from 2015 to 2017 in which TH paid 1.4 billion Saudi riyals, or about RM1.5 billion, to an intermediary to lease four hotels in Makkah and Madinah to accommodate Malaysian haj pilgrims.
He said the company was supposed to operate the four hotels and pay TH a rental amount of 2.49 billion Saudi riyals, but the payment was not made, while the substantial investment was only guaranteed personally through promissory notes.
Al-Rawda defaulted on its rental payments starting in the first quarter of 2019, eventually forcing TH to recognise a full impairment loss amounting to RM1 billion in 2024.
