KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 15 — The Cabinet today agreed to set up a special task force (STF) to conduct a probe into the losses suffered by Bank Negara due to foreign exchange (forex) trading in the 1990s.
The Prime Minister’s Office in a statement here said the STF would be made up of representatives of various government agencies including highly respected individuals who were experts in certain fields.
“This task force will make recommendations and suggestions for consideration by the Cabinet in the near-future for follow up action including the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) if needed based on the outcome of the probe,” the statement said.
According to the statement, the action by the government showed its commitment and transparency to ensure that Bank Negara’s dealings at the time followed the guidelines on good governance.
“The government will be open and transparent regarding this probe because it involves Bank Negara Malaysia and is said to be the biggest financial scandal,” it said.
“The setting up of this special task force is a first step to get all the related facts — analyse all the Hansard details on this during Parliament sittings on the matter at the time, minutes of past Cabinet meetings, Auditor-General’s reports, Bank Negara Malaysia reports as well as reports by related government agencies.
“It is also aimed at finding out what really happened, the actual amount of losses, whether there was any financial mismanagement and whether there was any attempt by certain parties to cover up the matter to prevent Malaysians from knowing what actually happened all this while,” the statement added. — Bernama
