It was a mistake, says Zahid

> Ex-DPM claims officer inadvertently used foundation funds to pay his credit card bills

PUTRAJAYA: The use of funds from a foundation Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi chairs to pay his and his wife’s credit card bills was done by one of his officers, the former deputy premier claimed.

In acknowledging that the funds were indeed used to pay the credit card bills, Ahmad Zahid said he had asked the officer to pay them using his personal account, only to find out later that the bills were cleared using funds from Yayasan Akal Budi.

The newly-elected Umno president said after he learnt of the mistake, he made a full reimbursement to the foundation using his personal money in 2016.

“When I received the bills, I passed them to the officer and asked him to make payment using my personal account. But the staff made a mistake by using the foundation’s cheque.

“Although it wasn’t his intention to abuse the fund, his action was improper. And I have also since fully repaid the foundation using my own money,” he told reporters after being questioned by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the issue at its headquarters yesterday.

He arrived at about 9.50am and came out of the building at 5.15pm.

Ahmad Zahid said he provided his full cooperation during the questioning and has also submitted related documents to MACC to assist in the investigation.

“What’s important is that I was transparent with the investigators, and there was no misappropriation of funds from the foundation,” he said.

He added that he was also the biggest contributor to the foundation, and hoped that his explanation yesterday would put to rest any speculationd negative perception against him.