Board sponsored four trips for police, says Lim

PUTRAJAYA: The recent trip to Turkey by Bukit Aman top brass was not the first to be sponsored by the Malaysia Totalisator Board. It is the fourth.

The board had sponsored three other trips between 2012 and 2014, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

“All the trips were approved during the Barisan Nasional administration when Datuk Seri Najib was the prime minister,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The Malaysia Totalisator Board acts as a regulatory body to oversee racing and betting activities, and funded by Numbers Forecast Totalisator companies.

Lim also detailed when the Malaysia Totalisator Board approved trips for senior police officials as well as the sponsorship.

On 27 March 2012, the board had approved the sponsorship of a trip for June 12-17, costing RM69,763.

The following year on March 20, the board approved another sponsorship amounting to RM95,040 for a five day trip beginning June 10.

On Feb 11, 2014, it approved RM128,400 for the sponsorship of a trip from May 1 to 6 for police officers. The most recent trip was approved on Nov 23, 2017 with a sponsorship of RM184,648.

Lim said decisions by the board need not be referred to the Finance Minister.

“Therefore, the ministry was not informed nor did it approve the board’s decision to sponsor the trip,” he said.

Whistleblower site Sarawak Report reported that Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun and 17 other senior police officers went on a lavish trip to Turkey which cost over RM300,000.

Following this, Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said he had approved the trip and that the officers had attended training to combat online gambling.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong took Pakatan ministers to task over conflicting statements on who authorised the Istanbul trip.

He compared the different statements made by Muhyiddin and Lim.

“Whose words should we listen to? Who is right?” Dr Wee asked in the posting.

Whose word should we listen to? Who is right? Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong