Govt Declassifies Tabung Haji RCI Report, Plans Special Parliament Sitting

SEREMBAN, July 29 — The Cabinet has agreed to declassify the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) report into Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) from the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972, with the government seeking to convene a special Dewan Rakyat sitting soon to debate its findings.

Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil revealed today that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has instructed Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said to coordinate with Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul to fix a date for the special session.

While the third parliamentary meeting of the year is scheduled to begin in early October, Fahmi explained that the Prime Minister requested the debate take place much earlier due to the public importance of the issue.

“The third meeting of this year’s parliamentary session will begin in early October. However, the Prime Minister hopes that we can hold it within a not-too-distant timeframe because this is a very important matter that needs to be examined and debated by Members of Parliament,” Fahmi said.

Fahmi noted that the Cabinet received a comprehensive briefing today from TH chairman and RCI member Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Hussain regarding the inquiry’s conclusions.

Addressing why the report was not made public earlier, Fahmi explained that TH management needed time to stabilize the agency’s financial position and execute necessary reforms before releasing the findings.

“He (Rashid) also explained why it took some time before Tabung Haji’s management was ready and agreed for the report to finally be disclosed. Among other reasons was that over the past two or three years, when he took over, efforts had been made to improve, adopt and implement the recommendations,” Fahmi said.

He highlighted that current management has successfully fulfilled 75 per cent of the 25 recommendations set out in the RCI report, adding that the agency’s 3.50 per cent profit distribution announcement for last year reflected the positive outcome of those recovery measures.

Following the Cabinet’s declassification decision, the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (JAKIM), acting as the secretariat, will publish and release the report to the public today.

Fahmi made the announcement during a visit to the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) Negeri Sembilan Bureau, which is serving as the operations centre for coverage of the 16th Negeri Sembilan State Election.

-NMT