EX-TH chairman denies violating Act in paying out dividends

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Pilgrims Fund (Tabung Haji (TH)) chairman Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim has denied claims that the previous TH management had violated the Tabung Haji Act 1995 in paying out dividends to its depositors since 2014.

He said based on the realisable asset valuation report prepared by Ernst & Young (EY) in 2015, 2016 and 2017, TH’s total assets exceeded liabilities.

According to him, in 2015, the realisable assets were valued at RM64.7 billion while liabilities and dividend payout totalled RM63.3 billion, giving a surplus of RM1.4 billion.

He said in 2016, the realisable asset value was RM69.1 billion while aggregate liabilities after dividend payout was RM68.4 billion, thus TH had surplus assets of RM701 million over liabilities in that year.

Azeez said in 2017, the realisable asset value was RM74.7 billion compared to aggregate liabilities and dividend payout of RM74.4 billion giving a surplus of RM373 million.

“This proves that the previous TH management paid out the dividends in accordance with provisions of the Act, but the current government had not taken into account the EY report in their disclosure yesterday.

“The National Audit Department had checked through the reports and certified them as satisfactory each year,” he said when met by reporters here yesterday.

On Monday, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof said the previous TH management had breached the Tabung Haji Act 1995 which states that two conditions must be met before dividends could be paid out, namely assets should not be less than liabilities and there must be distributable profits.

According to Mujahid TH had breached the statutory conditions since 2014 without fulfilling the two criteria. - Bernama