MP: TH leadership sackings in 2021 must be explained

The chief executive officer and chairman of Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH) were suddenly let go in 2021, and the Dewan Rakyat was reminded of this today by Syerleena Abdul Rashid (PH-Bukit Bendera). The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) found that this abrupt termination impacted TH's efforts to reform itself. Syerleena noted that RCI found both Datuk Nik Mohd Hasyudeen Yusoff and Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof had been doing their part to improve the institution before their contracts were ended.

Nik Mohd Hasyudeen was let go on May 5, 2021, weeks before his contract was set to end on August 31 of that year. On the other hand, Md Nor was fired on October 15, 2021, even though his contract had been extended for two years starting from July 20, 2020.

Syerleena emphasized that this isn't a DAP claim, but rather a conclusion from the RCI. She questioned why these high-ranking officials were removed when they were actively working on improvements at the Islamic savings and pilgrimage institution. Who made the decision to terminate them, and what performance assessment was used?

Was this decision made for the good of the institution or for other reasons? She stressed that TH's leadership should remain stable during changes in government, and not be subject to political changes. Syerleena pointed out that TH is not a place for leadership changes based on political cycles.

The RCI had spent its time examining TH's governance, financial crisis, restructuring, and other related matters, and it was now time for the government and enforcement agencies to act on its findings. If there are any legal violations or abuses of power, they should be investigated and held accountable. Syerleena also called for those who received warnings but ignored them to be identified, as well as for any political decisions that disrupted TH's recovery process to be revealed to Parliament.

She stressed that the RCI report shouldn't be just another document debated in Parliament and then forgotten. She expressed deep disappointment, saying the people are seeing a very bad situation: warnings were given but ignored, billions of ringgit were affected but no one was held responsible, reports were made but not acted upon, and those who tried to fix the situation were terminated.

She also rejected the notion that TH's financial crisis was caused by the Pakatan Harapan administration, stating that the problems had already been there for years before the coalition took over the federal government in 2018. The PH administration had actually started working on assessing and fixing TH's financial situation, including hiring PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to review its accounts and implementing a recovery and restructuring plan.