Annuar: I was never involved in sponsorship decisions

KUALA LUMPUR: Suspended Mara (Majlis Amanah Rakyat) chairman Tan

Sri Annuar Musa (pic) has explained to the committee probing him that he was not involved in decisions to grant sponsorship to the Kelantan football team.

“I was not involved in any decision-making, negotiation or giving direction (involving the sponsorship) as alleged,” he told reporters at the Mara office after a one-hour inquiry with the committee yesterday.

Mara is currently conducting an internal audit into allegations of misappropriation and abuse of power by Annuar, who is currently on full paid leave.

Annuar said he was only in charge of approving the budget for the branding and marketing in the promotion of the state’s football team, The Red Warriors.

The former Kelantan Football Association (Kafa) president said it was also not regular sponsorship but a commercial deal, which was a different concept altogether.

The decision to approve the commercial deals for Pelaburan Mara Bhd (PMB) and Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) to advertise their brands on the football jersey, said Annuar, was carried out by the marketing teams.

“I never instructed anyone in Mara, especially in using the education funds (to sponsor) the team.

“In fact, they (the marketing teams) were transparent in their decision and there was black-andwhite, and I had no hand in this,” he said.

However, Annuar claimed that the football team had been shortchanged by PMB, adding that it only paid RM200,000 for the RM700,000 worth of advertising value.

“This is the administration’s job, in which I wasn’t involved. Yes, we were shortchanged but this was based on willing buyer, willing seller.

“I know this is not fair. But we have to be supportive of government bodies,” he said.

Annuar said this concept of commercial package was introduced in the past decade and that it was never a problem.

Asked on his status as Mara chairman, Annuar said this would be decided by Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob once the investigation was concluded.

The issue that Mara subsidiaries had allegedly financed Kafa first came to light when Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim claimed that a certain “Tan Sri” had forced the entities to sponsor the football team.

In a Facebook post on Jan 12, he also published photographs of documents showing a RM500,000 sponsorship by UniKL and another RM200,000 by PMB.

Although no individual was mentioned, it was an apparent reference to Annuar.