KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 — The Cabinet has decided that the Tabung Haji (TH) will be placed under the supervision of the Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), says Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Fuziah Salleh.

She said the move would involve amendments to the Act to further boost the governance of the TH due to the problems faced by the agency.

"This is the Cabinet’s decision that TH to be placed under BNM supervision and amendments to the Act will be carried out to enable the move,” she said when winding up the Supply Bill 2019 debate for her ministry at the Dewan Negara today.

She was replying to a question from Senator Asmak Husin who wanted to know whether the BNM had certain timeframe in regulating TH after the recent disclosure of the agency financial position.

Fuziah also said with the supervision of the BNM, it would provide checks and balances for TH especially in the risk management as well as to intervene in the event of governance misconduct.

"In 2016, the BNM Governor has warned of alleged mismanagement within TH but as the agency was not under direct supervision of the central bank, there was nothing much that it could do until today,” she said.

On December 10, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa announced that TH would be placed under the supervision of the BNM from January next year as part of a comprehensive recovery plan to revive TH’s poor financial state of affairs that recorded RM4.1 billion deficit on December 31, 2017. — Bernama