Yapeim to take advice from panel

> Management guidelines being formulated for Islamic charity following expose by NOW

PETALING JAYA: Following allegations of impropriety by a whistleblower group, Yayasan Pembangunan Ekonomi Islam Malaysia (Yapeim) will soon have to adhere to advice and guidelines from a special committee

The committee members will be appointed by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak and they will be tasked with drawing up management guidelines for Yapeim.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, said the committee will likely have the guidelines ready by March or April next year.

Speaking to reporters at a corporate zakat event here yesterday, he said at the moment there are no guidelines to manage Islamic institutions, and if the committee succeeds in its task, it will be the first such guidelines.

Yapeim came under the spotlight following allegations by the National Oversight and Whistleblowers (NOW) centre that it had spent money on overseas courses.

NOW director Akmal Nasir also claimed that Yapeim spent RM290,000 for conducting a marriage course in Paris.

The centre’s latest expose is that Yapeim owns a golf simulator training centre in Petaling Jaya despite the core business of the Islamic charity being to help the needy.

Akmal said he got the information from Yapeim’s 2014 financial statement, which listed the golf simulator as among assets that depreciated.

Asyraf refused to respond to the claims put to him but instead said he would leave it to Yapeim’s management to resolve them.

He said the committee members who would oversee Yapeim would be those with expertise in developing internationally acclaimed Islamic management standards.

Among those to be appointed to the committee are a member from the London-based Chartered Institute of Management, and representatives from the Prime Minister’s Department, the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (Mampu), Khazanah Nasional Bhd, government-linked companies and Islamic institutions.

ZULKIFLI ERSAL/ THE SUN ... Kuala Lumpur City Hall enforcement officer Ariesyam Ab Rahman rides the Segway, a twowheeled electric vehicle, during his patrol rounds in the Dataran Merdeka area.